Torun International Studies

TRENDS IN SOUTH-SOUTH TRADE ACTIVITIES OF EAST ASIA PACIFIC AND SOUTH ASIA

2021-09-09T14:01:46+02:00

The aim of this article is to analyse trends in trade throughout the global South, focusing on two regions of Asia: East Asia and Pacific, and South Asia. Unlike many recent texts which tend to focus on the activities of China and India, and their consequences for the developed economies (mainly US and Europe), this article aims to identify trends in trade between developing countries, with a special emphasis on non-Chinese and non-Indian actors.

In attempting to measure the Asian developing regions’ engagement in the economic cooperation across the global South over the period of 2000–2019, an emphasis is placed on relative data (South-South trade as a percentage of total imports/exports), as opposed to absolute data (trade volumes for exports/imports in USD). This allows us to identify and compare trends in engagement for each individual actor regardless of their economic power. Important changes in the character of goods traded (i.e. leading import/export categories) can also be seen over the whole 20-year period.

While the participation of East Asia Pacific and South Asia in South-South trade undoubtedly grew after 2000, largely due to impressive performances of China and India. However, the economic might of these giants should not overshadow the performances of their smaller counterparts, who also play an integral role in setting the trends this article hopes to identify. In fact, in some particular years, the group of non-Chinese economies of East Asia Pacific, and the group of non-Indian countries of South Asia, outperformed both China, and India, when South-South trade was measured as a percentage of their total imports and exports.

Intraregional trade became the dominant component of East Asia Pacific trade over the 20-year period. This was not the case for South Asia, which might be seen as an obstacle for future development.

The positive experience of these two regions might be used as a blueprint to extend networks of trading relationships across the global South through which new value chains can be created. While this might be seen as somewhat controversial from a Northern perspective, it would inevitably lead to strengthening political relationships between developing regions, helping to balance the global economy, and provide opportunities for Southern-led capital flows to Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

STUDYING THE ECONOMIZATION OF DISCOURSE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE CASE FOR ECOLINGUISTICS

2021-04-06T15:33:36+02:00

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to serve as an interdisciplinary methodological proposal which aims to enrich the critical, constructivist and interpretivist schools of International Relations. It builds on the already existing, although still modest tradition of using discourse analysis in IR.

Methodology/approach: The methodology proposed is the combination of the interpretivist method with ecolinguistics. The inclusion of this innovative linguistic school provides an avenue of research that is both critical, ecological (or even eco-radical) and focused on language and its role in shaping both international politics and the world at large. The article contains a short introduction to ecolinguistics for IR scholars and tries to showcase its potential usefulness for analyzing different IR discourses.

Findings: The article is supplemented by a short empirical case study that shows the viability of using basic econliguistics in IR discourse analysis. The study is focused on the phenomenon of increasing economization of mainstream discourse on international affairs and uses the example of IR think tanks. Ecolinguistics are thereby applied to the narratives on the Paris Agreement published by chosen European think tanks in 2015 and 2016. The findings confirm both the economization of discourse on the matters of global political ecology as well as the usefulness of ecolinguistics in revealing this phenomenon.

Originality/value: The article is among the first syntheses of IR and ecolinguistics, which may prove relevant to many fields of international studies, with the most obvious one being political ecology. The proposed methodology will be useful to scholars representing critical, constructivist, “green” and ecofeminist approaches to studying IR.

THE IMAGE OF TURKEY IN THE ISLAMIC STATE’S PROPAGANDA MAGAZINES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

2022-01-03T15:55:19+01:00

At the beginning of the 21st century, the establishment of the caliphate remained invariably the strategic goal of the global Salafi-jihadist movement. The Islamic State’s (IS; often referred to as ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq and ah-Sham; Dāʿish or Daesh) primary goal of establishing a caliphate has placed ‘apostate’ regimes rather than Western countries, as their primary enemies. Such country is Turkey, which IS describes as tağut. Indeed, the first issue of the Dabiq magazine targets Turkey as a hostile tyrannical country. This article examines the IS’s approach to Turkey, which, due to cultural differences, is located on the border of Western and Middle Eastern civilizations (this approach to Turkey’s role is supported by its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO and negotiations of its accession to the European Union – EU). The author attempts to explore the main themes related to Turkey in IS’s English-language magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah, as well as the Turkish-language Konstantiniyye. The article aims to investigate whether Turkey is a main enemy and indirectly present whether its involvement in the fight against IS is/was linked to the increased terrorist threat in Turkey. The author hopes that this research will enrich the knowledge about jihadi propaganda and IS’s approach to close enemies (al-adou al-qareeb).

HOUSEHOLDS INEQUALITY AND INSURANCE INCIDENCE DYNAMICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH RISK FINANCING IN NIGERIA

2021-09-10T15:32:33+02:00

Purpose: Due to an increase in out-of-pocket health care expenditure, inequalities in health insurance access have continued to widen throughout Nigeria’s socioeconomic classes. As a result, the health risks, shocks, and financial burdens faced by Nigerians of various socioeconomic classes have increased. Given this, the impact of household inequality and insurance incidence on health risk financing in Nigeria is investigated.

Methodology/approach: Anchored on the cumulative inequality theory, the study employed World Bank data on domestic general government health risk expenditure per capita, Out-of-Pocket Expenditure on health risk per capita. It also employed the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) policies for the social inclusion index. Finally, it adopted a content analytic method for analysis.

Findings: The findings of the study revealed that health risk financing has been unevenly shouldered by the government and households, with the poorest households bearing a larger portion of the expenses. In line with the findings, the study recommends that government at all levels should tax every socioeconomic stratum according to their abilities and provide health insurance to them in relation to their health needs.

Originality/value: This study adds to the sparse literature on the subject matter in Nigerian literature. This study will engineer policy interventions that address increasing inequality in health care accessibility and ensure effective means of health risk financing that can promote healthcare equity for all.

POVERTY-GROWTH-INEQUALITY TRIANGLE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

2021-09-10T13:16:32+02:00

Purpose: Eradicating poverty is critical to achieving sustainable development. This study appraised the relationship between poverty, economic growth and income inequality in Nigeria and the interaction effect of growth and income inequality on Nigeria’s poverty level.

Methodology/approach: The study applied Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model on annual data between 1980 and 2018.

Findings: The study established that per-capita economic growth has a positive but insignificant relationship with poverty in the long run. The result also showed that inequality had a positive relationship with poverty, while the interaction of growth and inequality had a negative relationship with poverty. The Toda-Yamamoto test of causality reveals a bidirectional connection between economic growth and poverty, a unidirectional relationship from inequality to poverty, and a bidirectional relationship between growth-inequality interaction and poverty.

Originality/value: The study contributes to the literature by examining the PGIT hypothesis, specifically in Nigeria. In contrast to earlier inquiries, this study investigates the interaction effect of growth and inequality on poverty. We also incorporate social development indicators into our empirical PGIT model to aid in the formulation of poverty-eradication programs in Nigeria.

THE NEED FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION ARMY/ ON ARMED FORCES

2022-10-20T10:53:01+02:00

The Joint European Army has been a topic of discussion in the European Union in recent months. The idea of a common European army goes back to the beginnings of European integration within the mainstream of integration, which resulted in its current form of the European Union. After the end of World War II, the idea of creating a joint forces do defend Europe became very topical. The result was a proposal to sign the Brussels Treaty (its signatories were France, Great Britain, and the Benelux coutries) in March 1948, in response to the growing influence of expansion of the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern Europe. Subsequently, it was the Schuman Declaration of 1950, which resulted in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The idea of creating a joint European army was renewed at the highest political level under the influence of several factors, in the form of speeches by a top German politician (former German Chancellor Angela Merkel), France (French President Emmanuel Macron), and the European Commission (former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker), who, however, did not offer its specific form or time interval. Therefore, the idea remains abstract. The authors of the article, based on a historical analysis of the needs for building a joint European army and the requirements of the present, also in relation to the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, point to the need to create an institution in Europe (e.g., a joint European military forces) ensuring peace and security. In general, the authors of the article are of the opinion that the need to address the problem of the European Union’s defence integration is highly topical and could help Europe by becoming a major global player in ensuring peace and security in the world.