Editorial Note 2023/2

Abstract

This issue of the Bulgarian Journal of International Economics and Politics comes at the end of a year of growing turmoil in international relations. Against the background of continued Russian aggression in Ukraine, the end of 2023 saw another shockingly violent resurgence of the Middle East conflict - the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel and the subsequent bloody Israeli military operation in Gaza with the potential to spill over and escalate further. Against such a background, the contributions in the present issues cover a wide range of topics in international relations. The first article explores the problem of renewable energy and its production in the European countries. The authors apply predictive analytics techniques and data management to offer insights as regards the growth potential of renewable energy generation in this region. This issue also addresses space politics – a BJIEP recurrent topic. After the contribution on Russo-Sino interaction and cooperation in space politics in BJIEP 1/2022, the second article in the current issue focuses on the rise of space as a geopolitical concept that has become a topic of concern to the international community. One of the articles examines the contradictions and deficiencies of the human rights policies of the EU and argues that these lead to a bifurcated human rights regime which is an outcome of the problematic elements of the EU’s own political identity. The fourth piece of research focuses on a lasting international point of controversy – the conflict in Kashmir, seeking to explain it through the Islamization of Pakistan and the subsequent Talibanization of the entire Sub-Indian region. Two of the articles in this issue stand for cases on specific countries. One concentrates on the endemic problems of state capture, abuse of power and corruption as they appear in the Republic of Northern Macedonia during the government of Zoran Zaev (2017-2021). The other delves into “the painful development of Turkish modernity”, oscillating between aspirations to be “modern European” and traditionalism characteristics of broad segments of Turkish society. The author of the latter piece offers intriguing insights into the longing for modernity and its (un)realization based on the works of Orhan Pamuk and popular Turkish TV soap opera.
The present BJIEP issue continues the Expert’s Insights rubric with the contribution of Yanaki Stoilov, professor at the Faculty of Law at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, minister of Justice in the Interim government of the Republic of Bulgaria (2021-2021), and Constitutional court judge (October 2021 to present). The text is a speech professor Stoilov delivered at the Debate “L’Europe et la guerre en Ukraine: soutien, neutralite, implication?”, organised by the French Institute in Sofia. The contribution critically examines the interplay between politics, ideology, and law against the ongoing war in Ukraine and identifies the multifaceted implications of the conflict for Europe’s position in the evolving global context.