After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina erupted into ethnic conflict and ultimately genocide. Nearly 100,000 people, mainly Bosniaks, died in the Bosnian War. Two decades later, the violence has ended but the conflict is still present in Bosnia; the societal segregation of the 1995 Dayton Accords, intended only as an immediate solution to the violence, still stands. Population and language distribution are evidence of this segregation. Bosnia’s two entities are home to two different ethnic majorities: Serbs in the Republika Srpska and Bosniaks in the Federation of BiH. In an environment so sensitive that the government recently feared that merely releasing statistics on ethnic populations might cause violence, the languages that represent these populations are important indicators of social presence and power. In order to evaluate the presence of the Serbian and Bosnian languages, as well as the English language, in Bosnia, signage on the main streets in the country’s capitals were photographed in great detail. It was hypothesized that linguistic majority would match ethnic majority on both main streets, and that English would appear frequently in advertisements. The number of photographs in which each language appeared was tallied up in order to determine how often the languages are typically used. Analyses of these results demonstrated that the English language is the second-most ubiquitous on both streets, after Bosnian, and the comparatively small presence of the Serbian language on both streets indicated that the linguistic environment in Bosnia is not conducive to peace and reconciliation.

My argument about NATO’s future is a combination of both neo-realist and constructivist thought, an adaptation of both neo-realist power struggles and constructivist institutional structures. Due to a lack of a significant threat, NATO will collapse as a military alliance. However, due to the longevity of the Trans-Atlantic Relationship, the similarities in the governmental structure of its members and the history of peaceful interactions between the allies on both sides of the Atlantic, the current “security community” will remain despite the collapse of the military aspects of the Alliance. NATO has been held together through organizational inertia and shifting the unifying threat to a variety of lesser threats. Nevertheless, the weakness of the new threat will be insufficient in maintaining the Alliance. This argument is supported through three different period analyses of NATO. The first is an analysis of NATO in the Cold War and an overview of its creation as an answer to the threat of the Soviet Union. The second delves into the Alliance after the Cold War and the reasons for NATO’s continuation. The third section outlines NATO’s current missions, issues, and tensions within the Alliance. The paper concludes that NATO will fall apart in the future, with a slow but sure break down of the military structures of the Alliance. It will, however, remain a political entity due to the strength of the security community created between the allies.

The aim of this study is to determine regional income level and disparities in CEECs and Turkey in a comparison of new 26 NUTS-II regions for Turkey with 49 NUTS-II regions of CEECs in the period of 1995 and 2001 by using the indicator of GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power standard. In this study, furthermore, those questions have been discussed: whether the EU is a chance for reducing regional inequalities and growth of the regional wealth in Turkey, and whether Turkey is another thread for the EU regional policy in the future on the enlargement process for the EU. In this study, it is also examined regional income level and disparities in the EU-15, the EU-25, the EU-27, and the EU-28 in case accession of Turkey to the Union. The analyses are carried out for 207 NUTS-II regions of the EU-15, for the EU-25 (248 NUTS-II), for the EU-27 (262 NUTS-II) and for the EU-28 (288 NUTS-II) in terms of the latest available data of GDP per capita in PPS for 2001. The regional income disparities are discussed by using the most well known measures of regional inequality / i.e., Maximum to Minimum Ratio (MMR), Coefficient of Variation (CV), Relative Mean Deviation (Rw) and Theil Index (T). In case accession of Turkey to the EU, her NUTS-II regions would take an advantage of benefit assistance of the EU regional policy instruments along with the CEECs&rsquo / whereas, the seven NUTS-II regions of current three member states would continue to benefit of this assistance, i.e. 3 NUTS-II regions of Greece, 3 for Portugal and only one NUTS-II region for Spain. In the accession-period of Turkey, which will start accession-negotiations with the EU on 3 October 2005, she should adjust her regional policy and regional development projects in light with the EU regional policy and its financial instruments in order to utilize that advantage.

The objective of this thesis is to explain how Dmitrii Shostakovich used Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poetry to create the Thirteenth Symphony. This collaboration between two arts, poetry and music, reflects more than just separate ideas. The five movements of the symphony bring to public conscience the political opinions of Shostakovich regarding life in the Soviet Union.

The goal of this thesis is to provide comprehensive set of information about Chinese investment abroad policy and its approach to Eastern Europe. Introduction and first chapters describe China as a developing country which is trying to diversify its large foreign reserves, and actively to penetrate into foreign markets. Then thesis focuses on Chinese regional investment experience. Natural resources and commodities are prime targets for China in Africa. Meanwhile, Western Europe is perceived as an opportunity to gain knowhow and management experience as well as access to developed markets. Last chapters are devoted to the investment partnership between China and CEE countries and are focused on CEE attractiveness for Chinese corporations. China invests in high tech, telecommunication, automotive, machinery, food and construction industries in Eastern Europe.

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After 12 years of isolation, the relations between Brussels and Minsk have been thawing starting in the last year. One of the components of the policy of re-engagement is the new initiative adopted by the EU called Eastern Partnership (EaP). This thesis sought to answer following question: what were the main reasons for the change in the EU policy towards Belarus after 2008? In order to answer the research question I formulated two hypotheses. The first hypothesis argues that while the EU has acted according to the normative power expectations up until 2008, after that date a more pragmatic approach in the foreign policy has been at work. The second hypothesis explains this change by the increasing influence of Eastern European countries in realm of decision-making processes within the EU, which resulted in a reformed EU foreign policy towards Belarus.These hypotheses are tested in a qualitative case study of the launching of the Eastern Partnership initiative, seen as the most important instrument that defines the new policy of EU. I will focus on the process of decision–making in regards to the adoption of the new initiative towards the Eastern European countries, using the rational actor model and the theory of formal leadership. The results of the paper point out that the main reason for changing the EU foreign policy towards Belarus were connected to pragmatic interests in the economic and energy areas, which weakened the EU normative claims. However, EU values are still counted as political conditionality has recently re-entered the agenda. Thus, the current foreign policy is two-fold: based on rational model of acting and normative power. Moreover, the EaP is the result of the strengthened position of Eastern European countries in terms of the power hierarchy among EU members, with Poland, and the Baltic States playing an increasingly larger role.

This study examines the childhood emigration, cultural and linguistic transitions and adaptation pathways of Eastern European immigrant students on an urban university campus. Although Eastern Europeans and immigrant children represent a substantial segment of the immigrant population in the U.S. they are understudied groups. After the collapse of the Soviet Union large numbers of migrants emigrated from the former Soviet Republics, but less is known about their experiences compared to other immigrant groups. Immigrant children have historically come to the U.S. since its inception but compared to the adult experience their status has been rendered ambiguous and their experiences marginalized to such an extent that they have largely been invisible in the literature. Commonly children are referred to as "children of immigrants" rather than assigned their own category of "immigrant children." While it is generally acknowledged that primary socialization of children influence their secondary socialization, the influences of child migrants' inculcation in the first culture, migration, acculturation and integration experiences with associated emotions have not been sufficiently considered. There is a general assumption in much of the immigrant scholarships that the cultural influences of the first country on child migrants are essentially negated by the acculturation process in the U.S., and this conjecture leads scholars to construct various generational categories that collapse immigrant children with the second generation native-born youth in their analysis thereby potentially skewing or obscuring critical outcome information. Since immigrant children's voices have largely been missing in the research process, through 34 in-depth interviews with Eastern European immigrant college students, we examined the extent to which the child migrants experienced the migration dislocation and incorporation as well as the possible lasting consequences in their adaptation pathways, self-identifications, social interaction, and standpoints on societal issues associated with emotional acculturation. Collectively, the Russian and Ukrainian immigrant students' narratives about their college experience indicated that they were meeting with success academically, were focused on individual goals, expressed appreciation for diversity, and were integrated into the social and professional organization on the university campus. However, most of the participants who emigrated during childhood reported that they had difficult or traumatic migration transitions in their first U.S. schools and neighborhoods, and often they recounted emotionally the memories of these profound events associated with their acculturation during the interviews. As a group, the Eastern European students expressed that both positive and negative immigration and transitional experiences, perspectives gained from the shared struggle with their parents, openness to diversity, achievement orientation, and work ethic are some of the differentiating characteristics that set them apart from their native-born American siblings, and the second-generation Russian and Ukrainian children of immigrants. Most of the Russian and Ukrainian immigrant students on campus socialized with other immigrants of diverse backgrounds, mainstream American students, least often with co-ethnics and rarely with second-generation co-ethnics or native minorities. When we conceptualize the social interaction boundary to include all immigrants, then the participants in this study may be considered "immigrant in-groupers" following in a modified form some of the findings of Grasmuck and Kim (2010) that investigated the social mixing patterns of four ethno-racial groups on the same campus. Although most of the participants had reported overall positive high school experiences, those who contended with social development issues, understanding the American culture, and the English language on the campus disproportionately represented those who had reported overall traumatic childhood integrations. As a group they embraced the ideology of meritocracy, and those who had reported traumatic childhood acculturation experiences more often adhered to the standpoint that white people were not more privileged and that equal opportunity exists for all. When we considered identity formation we found substantial complexity in the Eastern European immigrant students' self-identifications with a tendency to resist labels. Salient non ethnic (cosmopolitan/global/role) identity claims, hybrid or multi layered ethnic self-identifications that included salient non ethnic components emerged from their narratives. None of the participants identified solely as "American" but included it or referred to degree of "Americanization" as an element in their self-identification. The totality of the dominant patterns that emerged from the Eastern European immigrant students' narratives lend support for the standpoint that in research concerning outcomes for immigrant children, methodologies are warranted that take into account age at arrival, developmental stages, engendered emotions during childhood acculturation, and the standpoint of the foreign-born children. Concomitantly, the model of segmented assimilation does not theorize the potential impact of emotions on school age children who negotiate divergent peer contexts of reception without their parents. This investigation indicates that children's reaction to the nature of their acculturation may be manifested differentially when considering social psychological adjustment, adaptation, and mobility, and that the emotional legacy of childhood migration experiences ought to be considered at least equal to structural features such as governmental policies toward them, the composition of their enclaves, and labor market conditions. / Sociology

Only one third of the French SMEs are going abroad. However, this option can be an opportunity for the enterprises to extend their growth. The Chinese market is often designated to be the best place to invest. Nevertheless, it is far from France geographically and culturally. Russia and Central/Eastern Europe represent for French SMEs huge and frequently unknown markets, closed to France with all the benefice of their accession to the European Union. These regions have economic and demographic potentials because of their singular history. The study of these countries will show the possible market development in which the French companies and specially SMEs have competences and know-how highly valuable in these markets. Furthermore, the European and French incentives for SMEs and the support of different organizations are additional assets to facilitate the internationalization.

With regard to European Union joining, Romania and Eastern European region have much more attention of the rest of the world. Romania became a phenomenon of Balkan Peninsula during last five years. The aim of the thesis is to describe economic development of Romania before its admission to European Communities and summarize its current economic position in the Union. A part of the thesis is devoted to romanian market environment and assesses especially its attractivity in consideration of the Czech republic.