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Beijing and New Delhi, as new world emerging powers, despite border skirmishes, have not considered themselves arch-rivals. Still, the necessities of real politics have forced India to take counter-measures towards China’s grand connectivity strategy in the framework of BRI and the Maritime Silk Road. This article assumes that China’s grand connectivity strategy has not targeted India in particular, but unavoidably it has affected India’s strategic interests in the Indian Ocean and Eurasia. In a qualitative and case study methodology, this research explains China’s grand connectivity strategy and how it affects Indian strategic interests. It also elaborates on India’s counter-measures vis-à-vis China policy. It concluded that the Chinese connectivity strategy has affected Indian strategic interests in the Indian Ocean and Eurasia. Therefore, Chabahar, Gwadar ports, and Malacca Strait are centers of gravity in these great connectivity rivalries.

This article analyses the maritime security pillar of India’s Indo-Pacific Outlook Initiative (IPOI) in Southeast Asia and its far-reaching impact on Vietnam. The study utilizes the analytical framework of neorealism, liberalism, and constructivism to examine the objectives and intentions of India’s IPOI and ASEAN’s AOIP in the context of strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific. The author’s findings reveal a significant convergence of strategic interests between IPOI and AOIP, which brings numerous and tremendous benefits to Vietnam, such as fostering the Vietnam-India comprehensive strategic partnership and equipping Vietnam to tackle challenges from the rise of China. The rise of China, strategic competition among major powers, and the increasing significance of the Indo-Pacific have spurred India and ASEAN to develop their visions to adapt to the Indo-Pacific concept. However, the implementation of IPOI in Southeast Asia still faces several limitations, primarily due to the divergent understanding and goals of IPOI, which places a premium on maritime security, and AOIP, which is more focused on naval cooperation. Furthermore, differences in the perceptions of India and ASEAN on maritime security also contribute to these limitations, highlighting the need for further research and development.

The Paracel Islands are situated in the South China Sea geographic center and have an important strategic location for the military and the economy. Since 1884, France has represented the Vietnamese state as a protectorate to manage the archipelago. In the context of France seeking to expand its influence into the Asia-Pacific region, disputes over sovereignty over the Paracel Islands occurred during the colonial period between France (representing Vietnam), China, and Japan. The article aims to analyze the importance of the Paracel Islands in the policies of France, China, and Japan in general. Moreover, the specific activities of France in the struggle with China and Japan to affirm and protect sovereignty over the Paracel Islands would also be analyzed. Based on primary and secondary data, along with historical research methods, research methods in international relations, and other interdisciplinary research strategies, the article concludes that the Paracel Islands play an important role in the strategies of France, China, and Japan. Hence, the Paracel issue in this period has gone beyond the framework of traditional territorial disputes, becoming \"internationalization” with consequences that persist to the present day. France's policy to exploit and administer the Paracel Islands was persistent, thorough, and systematic in the military, economic, political, and diplomatic spheres.

This article takes a strategic narrative approach to explaining the current and likely future contestation between Russia and the West. We argue that Russia projects a strategic narrative that seeks to reinforce Russia’s global prestige and authority, whilst promoting multilateral legal and institutional constraints on the other more powerful actors, as a means to ensure Russia stays among the top ranking great powers. To illustrate this we analyze Russia’s identity narratives, international system narratives and issue narratives present in policy documents and speeches by key players since 2000. This enables the identification of remarkably consistency in Russia’s narratives and potential points of convergence with Western powers around commitment to international law and systemic shifts to an increasingly multipolar order. However, we explain why the different meanings attributed to these phenomena generate contestation rather than alignment about past, present and future global power relations. We argue that Russia’s historical-facing narratives and weakened material circumstances have the potential to hamper its adaptation to rapid systemic change, and to make attempts to forge closer cooperation with third parties challenging.

This thematic issue addresses how strategic narratives affect international order. Strategic narratives are conceived of as stories with a political purpose or narratives used by political actors to affect the behavior of others. The articles in this issue address two significant areas important to the study of international relations: how strategic narratives support or undermine alliances, and how they affect norm formation and contestation. Within a post-Cold War world and in the midst of a changing media environment, strategic narratives affect how the world and its complex issues are understood. This special issue speaks to the difficulties associated with creating creative and committed international cooperation by noting how strategic narratives are working to shape the Post-Cold War international context.

From November 2013 to the present day the Ukrainian crisis generated the most severe conflict in Europe since the 1990s, while current skirmishes in the eastern part of the country and recent new developments have the potential to further tighten the crisis. Notwithstanding the internal elements of the ongoing crisis, this paper will be focused on the analysis of its external - geopolitical – dimension. By acquiring a conceptual framework from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s writings on geopolitics, this article will analyze the Ukrainian crisis in terms of strategic, economic, and ideological interests of the Russian Federation.

Through an analysis of the foundation of the so-called 'new universities' in the UK, this article offers an interpretation of the change process in higher education. The argument is that although change is driven by economic and social forces, it is the political interpretation of these forces that steers the change process and, therefore, determines the shape of new institutional structures and how they are supposed to perform their tasks. The article contrasts the original steering of the change process by state and quasi-state institutions with the more recent emergence of state-regulated market pressure as the force for change in higher education.

Various theories in international relations offer multiple models of explanation of relations between states, but most of them are based on the idea that states act in accordance with their national interests. In fact, in its essence state interests include the need to maintain security, sovereignty and the development of the economy. Classical realists such as: Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Rousseau, see at the conflict as a natural state in international relations, not as a consequence that can be attributed to historical circumstances, wicked leaders, disturbed socio-political systems, or international disagreements. The basis of the theory of idealists such as: Grotius, Kant and Bentham are the denial of the right to war, because they consider it is possible to establish an authority capable of maintaining peace. From the perspective of the idealists, wars are caused by egoistic interests of state leaders at the expense of the interests of the citizens.

Argentina y Brasil ilustran cómo distintos diseños electorales impactan en la selección de candidaturas para cargos electivos subnacionales. En Argentina, la autonomía de las provincias para establecer sus propias normas electorales se extiende a la selección de candidaturas, pues es opcional la adhesión a la ley nacional. En Brasil, si bien la legislación electoral es común para todos los estados, las reglas al elegir candidaturas, ya sea a nivel nacional o subnacional, son establecidas por cada partido. En este artículo se analiza cómo las reformas políticas llevadas a cabo en ambas naciones han tenido efectos sobre la selección de candidaturas subnacionales. Utilizando el abordaje top-down para el análisis multinivel, argumentamos que las reformas políticas en estos dos países han planteado tensiones multinivel con impactos en sus sistemas electorales y partidarios que afectaron el grado de pluralidad y la transparencia de la oferta electoral. En Argentina, el proceso fallido de homogeneización vertical de la selección de candidaturas a través de las primarias, abiertas, simultáneas y obligatorias (PASO) ha impactado en las reformas electorales subnacionales y en las prácticas de los actores políticos provinciales. En el caso brasileño, la jurisprudencia y las reformas nacionales surgen para fomentar la coordinación entre los partidos en ambos niveles de gobierno. Los dos casos muestran una tendencia a las nominaciones de candidaturas cerradas y verticalistas.

Globalizing Citizens presents expert analysis from cities and villages in India, South Africa, Nigeria, the Philippines, Kenya, the Gambia and Brazil to explore how forms of global authority shape and build new meanings and practices of citizenship, across local, national and global arenas.