Volume 4 (2021): Edition 1 (June 2021)

The Covid-19 pandemic has made interdependence globally relevant. Communication channels provide us with technological advances; they can make our lives easier, but they can also bring us viruses. In this session, we aim to explore the impact of Covid-19 on relationships between states and other global actors. To what extent will the pandemic affect international relations? What role will emerging actors such as large corporations, pressure groups or multilateral organizations take on? What impact will the possible reconfiguration of global relations have on Europe, but also on the world? This article aims to analyze the consequences of Covid-19 in our societies.

The current pandemic crisis is unique in its kind, becoming a global cataclysm with a multilateral impact and an extended spread over time. Affecting all aspects of human activity, this crisis has inevitably affected the higher education system, and its consequences are manifesting both locally and internationally. The purpose of this paper was to establish the influence of crisis on the economic situation of higher education institutions. After studying of different institutions reports, analytical presentations of authors from different countries, as well as the author's communication with colleagues from different educational institutions during online academic meetings, it became possible to compile a complex picture of economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on higher education system. The research results showed an extremely uneven spread of the economic effects of the pandemic crisis. Thus, the least COVID-19 crisis has affected universities in industrially developed countries and the disastrous impact will manifested in developing countries. In addition, a dependence of evolution of economic situation of educational institutions of a complex of important factors was detected. It is about of change in living standard of the population, the capacity of the local authorities to manage the consequences of the pandemic, the changes in higher education policies, presiding students to do higher education, managerial ability to manage the economic and financial status of higher education institutions and others. Likewise, certain ways of solving economic problems have been outlined.

The article summarises the scientific debate on the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies adopted by the European Union to promote gender equality in academia and the adoption of a gender perspective in research.

The article focuses on introducing gender mainstreaming, promoting gender equality and structural change in research performing and financing organisations, and adopting gender action/equality plans. The discussion is structured around textual analysis of relevant EU acts, scientific literature, reports of EU funded research projects, communication and support actions. The authors discuss the critics of the various initiative and advance some considerations about what could support individuals and groups interested in promoting positive changes towards gender equality, diversity and inclusion in the academic field. The article relevance is linked to the innovation promoted by Horizon Europe, that requires all public institutions applying for Eu funding to have a Gender equality plan, and the risks that previous mistakes can be repeated hindering the process towards gender equality as in the recent past.

This article discusses systems for recognizing human faces, as well as systems for identifying flying objects. The paper deals with the main security issues related to the recognition of faces and images of objects. Today, automation systems that help to recognize an object, compare it with existing databases, can help prevent terrorist attacks, unauthorized penetrations, as well as the proliferation of biological and nuclear weapons. To date, the study of issues related to the possibility of using these systems is relevant and very much in demand.

This paper, which covers the period of the 2004 Annan Plan and its rejection to date, places the Cyprus Problem in an International Relations theoretic framework. It searches for a “foreign policy outcome,” essentially a decision by the leaders of the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities, to politically reunite these two communities under the auspices of the UN. The paper provides a synthesis of the neo-liberal and the neoclassical realist paradigms, aiming to better interpret the existing experience and to shed light on the prospect of a future solution to the problem. The strategic environment for the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is ‘permissive’ because the message sent by the international system for reunification does not require the use of hard power. The leaders of the two communities play a key role, although the strategic political culture in small states such as the TRNC is not developed and state-society relations are underdeveloped. Also, the civil society at large can play a role in influencing the leaders' images regarding the reunification opportunity.

The article studies the Iranian political society, starting from the analysis of the Iranian Constitution, the only one in the world characterized by “eschatological” components. The authors retrace the history of the birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is fundamental to ensure an interpretation of the politics of that country that takes into account religious and cultural factors and clarifies possible future developments. Furthermore, they address the problem relative to the symbolic system on which the configuration of the Iranian Republic theoretically rests, which must necessarily come to terms with pragmatic reality. In fact, to have a following in his revolutionary project, Khomeini used the “symbolic spring”, in which the politics of Iran in these years have demonstrated the necessity of realism with a parallel with the concept of agnosticism, which thus becomes natural, in opposition to theories that are often more subjective than objective. Finally, the authors go so far as to say that today is the time for a change, even if in a country like Iran, everything proceeds slowly. Young Iranians will have to obtain a role, reorganize and rekindle from below. The involvement of the young people themselves can increase hope in a process that promises to be complex and articulated, which sees the theocratic model as opposed to the model of Muslim politics in a purely eschatological context, which to most, especially in the West, appears anachronistic, but this is not always the case.

The aim of the paper is to talk about the risk management system especially today in pandemic time. The authors would like to analyze the issue of risk management in an economic and healthcare context. taking into account that there are strong relationships between society and health such as the question of social responsibility and organization, social responsibility and social impact and social responsibility and competitiveness. The correlation between economy and health is highlighted in the healthcare sector, where the risk profile is in fact considered complex and extremely dynamic.