The Fulfillment of Nationwide Interests of Post-War Germany in the Dimension of ‘Chancellor Democracy’

Summing up the modern course of events regarding political leadership in Germany and on the basis of activities of eight chancellors, the author contends the following: The decisive factor in ascension to the political Olympus is the affiliation with either of the two parties, the SPD or the CDU/CSU union, with the nominee’s leadership qualities and political acumen playing an essential role. Even if these conditions are met, the contender’s choice of situation and time where these qualities would be sought after is quite important. It was the political developments of a certain historical era that became an imperative for some politicians to take the reins of power and use them to the full extent. Indeed, at turning points in the history of the Federal Republic, the most crucial decisions were prepared at the German Chancellery and made unilaterally by the chancellor. The author of the article emphasises that chance cannot be ruled out. To become a successful leader in Germany, the much-needed person must be in the right place at the right time. Proof of that is the example of German federal chancellors. The political landscape, democratic footing, and well-structured state and political set-up have enabled only two political parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, to nominate from their ranks those who could become national leaders of their historical epoch. The basis of ‘chancellor democracy’ as a system of state and political power has never impeded but enabled such ascension for outstanding personalities. Quite a few of them have become some sort of fathers of the nation. Able leadership that has benefited national interests and fitted into the plane of German development prospects has defined the personal success of both political figures and public officials of national scope. Keywords: Federal Republic of Germany, federal chancellor, political landscape, SPD, CDU/CSU.

Activities of The First Ukrainian Representation in Istanbul: State Mission of Diplomats

The article offers an insight into the foundations and main directions of work of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul through the prism of the personalities of its leaders. The author paid particular attention to the problems that Ukrainians had to face at the first stage of the formation of Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations. The article was prepared on the basis of archival information contained in documents, which are mainly stored in the Central State Archives of the High Authorities and Administration of Ukraine. The results of studies of Ukrainian and Turkish scientists are taken into account. Based on the documents revealed and historiography, it was stated that the activity of the first Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Turkey lasted more than three years. During April 1918 – June 1922, there were five heads of the diplomatic mission, namely Mykola Levytskyi, Mykhailo Sukovkin, Oleksandr Lototskyi, Jan Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, Lev Lisniak, each of whom exerted best of their strengths, intelligence and devotion to the national idea to implement the state mission. Mykhailo Sukovkin inflicted harm on the image of Ukraine maintaining contacts within the White Guard and demonstrating a non-Ukrainian position. The author states that the main areas of activity of the diplomatic mission were to establish political and economic relations, disseminate truthful information about Ukraine, achieve recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, popularize and institutionalise the idea of the Black Sea Union, organise aid to Ukrainian prisoners of war and refugees in Istanbul, form them into Ukrainian army units. The termination of the activities of the Embassy of the UPR was the result of the signing of interstate treaties between Turkey and the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. The mutual diplomatic presence of the UPR and the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the extension of the stay of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul in June 1922 give grounds to suggest that after the restoration of Ukraine’s state independence in 1991, the Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations were not established but restored. Keywords: Ukrainian People’s Republic, Ukrainian State, Embassy of the UPR in the Ottoman Empire, Brest Peace Treaty.

The Pinnacle in the Activity of the Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in Romania (1921)

The article deals with the peculiarities in the activity of the Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (EDM of the UPR) in Romania during 1921, when the whole territory of Ukraine was occupied by Bolshevik troops. In those circumstances, the State Centre of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile considered Romania as its important military and political partner in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence. For its part, the then Romanian leadership was deeply interested in the existence of independent Ukraine, primarily as a military and political buffer between Romania and expansionist Soviet Russia. The author emphasises the existence at the beginning of and during 1921 of sufficiently favourable political conditions for the activities of the EDM of the UPR in Romania. During 1921, the head of the mission and seasoned diplomat, K. Matsievych, held two important meetings with King Ferdinand I of Romania, had numerous working contacts with the heads of Romanian governments, ministers of foreign affairs, ministers of war, as well as authorised members of parliament and politicians with whom he discussed the cooperation of the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic with Romania, zealously defending the Ukrainian cause. The EDM of the UPR in Bucharest and its consular offices in Iași, Chișinău, and Chernivtsi paid special attention to working with thousands of Ukrainian militaries as well as political and civilian emigrants throughout Romania, uniting the patriotic part of emigration and using its potential to liberate Ukraine. In this context, it is noted that during 1921 a military section was active in the EDM of the UPR in Bucharest, which from June of that year was headed by an experienced Ukrainian general, S. Delvih. The study reveals the details of the formation in the summer of 1921 in Romania, with the assistance of the country’s authorities, of the Bessarabian (Southern) guerrilla group as part of the UPR Insurgent Army with headquarters in Chișinău to participate in the Second Winter Campaign (October–November 1921), aimed at liberating southwestern Ukraine from the Bolshevik occupation. Keywords: Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission, Ukrainian People’s Republic, Directory, Kingdom of Romania, UPR Army, interned soldiers, guerrilla insurgent groups, Second Winter Campaign.

The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine: A Logical Step to Resuming the Independence of the Ukrainian State (For the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence)

The article covers the problems with respect to the resumption of the independence of the Ukrainian state that occurred after the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine on 16 July 1990 and the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on 24 August 1991. The authors determine the influence of the Russian political establishment on Ukrainian state building, exerted by means of hybrid warfare against Ukraine. Also described are the threats to Ukraine’s national security posed by Russia, such as the occupation of Crimea and part of Donbas, sponsorship of terrorism at the state level, political blackmailing, expansion of the ‘Russian world’ in the Ukrainian humanitarian and political space, etc. The article contains a comparative analysis of the processes of Ukrainian state building in the early and late 20th century as well as the geopolitical and domestic conditions in which the Ukrainian national vision was operationalised. Keywords: Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, hybrid warfare.

Europe on the Road to World War II: Polemical Notes

The Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine, preceded by the war of the Russian Federation against Georgia, raised the question of a joint repulse of democratic states to actions aimed at undermining European stability. The problem of protecting small and medium-sized states from the threat posed by Russia has arisen in a new way. In this context, the inability of leading European states to stop the aggression of Nazi Germany is repeatedly mentioned. To assess the relevance of such parallels with modernity, the authors of this article seek to briefly and objectively analyse what was happening in the 1930s. The threat of a military catastrophe and complete destabilisation of Europe had been growing since 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany. He and his entourage gradually dragged Europe into a series of international conflicts and the World War II. According to the authors of the article, the leading motive for the inaction of Western powers within the military and political allied cooperation was not the desire to balance Germany’s military power and thus deter aggression but the attempt to avoid involvement in a world war by appeasing Hitler. In pursuit of European stability, France aimed to secure the military support of as wide a range of European countries as possible, and Great Britain was seeking to build a stable European system without making clear military commitments to the continental powers. London felt at peace with Berlin’s continental ambitions, as they did not cover the seas. London entertained the illusion that its security could be guaranteed without interfering in the war on the mainland. The authors emphasise that only in a state of conscious self-blindness could Western politicians for years retain the illusion of the prospect of civilising and taming the German dictator by satisfying his whims. Such illusions, however, never concerned Stalin. In the pre-war period, the Stalinist regime did its best to prevent the Soviet Union from being involved in building a system of collective security in Europe. The authors come to the following conclusion: in an effort to preserve at least the remnants of stability in Europe, the states have consistently moved towards continuous destabilization and war. Keywords: Europe, military and political union, World War II, Germany.

Foreign Policy Aspects of the National Liberation Struggle and the Geostrategic Place of the Ukrainian State in the Concept of the OUN-B

The article deals with the foreign policy aspects in the ideological concept of Stepan Bandera’s Organisation of Ukrainian Nationatists (OUN-B) during the period from the change of position and balance of forces in the Eastern Front of World War II in 1943 and its transformation during the following postwar decades until the eve of the restoration of Ukraine’s independence. The author examines the OUN’s geopolitical calculations for an armed confrontation between the USSR, on the one hand, and the allied United States and Great Britain, on the other; the beginning of the search for ways of the organisation’s cooperation with Western democracies; its attitude to the threat of a nuclear war, etc. Also analysed is the OUN-B leadership’s vision of the geostrategic place of the future Ukrainian state in the international arena and, in particular, in the post-Soviet space and on the map of Central and Eastern Europe. The article sheds light on the vision of the role and place of independent Ukraine in international politics, particularly with respect to possible military and political blocs, Ukraine’s role in the United Nations, its attitude to the prospect of united Europe, the war in Afghanistan, national liberation movements and the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the restoration of Ukraine’s state independence, and its place in the post-Soviet and European space. By way of conclusion, the author argues that the Cold War turned out to be helpful in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and allowed Ukraine to restore its national independence in 1991. Nonetheless, the modern national security agenda of Ukraine and the need for the world’s peace and balance necessitate curbing the imperialist, bellicose, and culpably terrorist actions and intents of Russia, the successor of the USSR. Keywords: OUN-B, Cold War, geopolitics, national liberation movements.

‘Beirut Stories’ by Ahatanhel Krymsky: For the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of the Prominent Ukrainian Orientalist

The article deals with the scholarly contribution of the outstanding orientalist Ahatanhel Krymsky in the development of Ukrainian history, science, and literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author describes the years of A. Krymsky’s life in Lebanon and the influence of the Beirut period of his life on his making as a young scientist. The author has examined his literature works created in Lebanon, particularly Beirut Stories providing insight into the life, daily routine, and interreligious relations of Beirut citizens of that time. The author analyses the significance of A. Krymsky’s works for the development of modern Ukrainian-Lebanese bilateral relations and points out events devoted to the scientist, which have been held by the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut and Choueir. Keywords: Ahatanhel Krymsky, oriental studies, science, Beirut Stories, Arab world.

The Phenomenon of State Sovereignty: Past and Present

The article examines the current condition of the status of state sovereignty, which is being gradually replaced by such social and political phenomenon as sovereignism. The author is convinced that the reason of its current rise is the weakening of sovereignty, the artificially made, legally enshrined, and not always successful mechanism of the state’s existence. Sovereignism became widely spread in the aftermath of World War II. The erstwhile world order in international relations rested upon state sovereignty, where the strong provided assistance to the weak in return for certain privileges, and the weak sought to find a protector of their sovereignty among the world’s leaders and international organisations. The author states any social phenomenon has to develop and evolve. This is also the case with sovereignty, an obsolete form of the state’s existence, which is searching for new variants of development on the global scale. Sovereignism may be regarded as a new pattern in the development of sovereignty and a means of weakening it. At the same time, it may be viewed as an impetus to strengthening sovereignty. Sovereignism has led to deadly wars and the influx of migrants all around the world; it is a hazardous challenge of the present. This fever of forgone political ambitions transcending state borders and spreading all over the globe is destructing established norms, traditions, and stability. Sovereignism is creating a new social identity in regions at war, which is a dangerous challenge for national security. Thus, sovereignism brings instability, chaos, clashes, and human toll. The author draws a conclusion that given current developments the protection of a weak state is possible only through integration with advanced economies and international agencies able to take responsibility for their partners and, most importantly, through building one’s own national defence forces. Keywords: nationalism, sovereignty, human rights, dignity, war.

Radiological Weapons (Excerpts from the History of Ban Talks)

The article highlights the history of radiological weapons ban negotiations. In 1948, the United Nations Commission on Conventional Armaments identified radiological weapons as WMD. Since as early as the 1960s, some states have put forward proposals to ban radiological weapons at the international level as potentially threatening human lives and the environment. In 1977 to 1979, a treaty banning radiological weapons was approved on the basis of a draft developed at bilateral Soviet-American negotiations in Geneva, which could have become an important impetus for further actions in limiting the arms race. The careful preparation of the text of the future treaty by the USSR and US delegations raised expectations that its finalisation by the Disarmament Commission would not take much time. The reality, however, was far different. In December 1979, the Afghan war broke out. In response to the Soviet aggression against Afghanistan, the United States took a whole set of measures, including the refusal to continue bilateral talks on the prohibition of radiological weapons. The author notes that control over radioactive materials was strengthened at the national level, without waiting for an international legal definition of radiological weapons. Political ambitions of a number of countries have prevented the Conference on Disarmament from achieving positive results. The author emphasises that today nuclear terrorism is regarded by world leaders as an urgent global-scale security threat, as confirmed by the international Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. in 2016, attended by delegations from over 50 countries. The author states that the issue of the radiological weapons prohibition remains pending. Keywords: radiological weapons, Conference on Disarmament, Ukrainian diplomatic history, USA, Geneva, USSR.