The Journal of Regional Security Special Collections is a curated thematic section that brings together selected articles from previous issues of the Journal of Regional Security into one easily accessible ‘virtual issue’. Designed as a dynamic reference point for readers, it gathers the most relevant scholarship on pressing contemporary security themes in a single place, making it easier to navigate the journal’s rich archive. Current collections include Crises and Conflicts, Theory, European Security, Western Balkans, Global Security, Security and Society, and Security and Development. In particular, the Crises and Conflicts collection features articles addressing ongoing wars, geopolitical tensions, and major crises unfolding across different regions of the world, offering timely academic insights into some of today’s most urgent security challenges.
“Cold hybrid warfare: Science diplomacy as superpowers’ geopolitical statecraft in the Cold War transatlantic security architecture and the reimagination of world order” by Zhang, Yi, Journal of Regional Security 20 (2): 239-72 (2025).
Abstract: Refuting the conventional view of science diplomacy as Track II diplomacy while highlighting the Cold War as a structure wherein the superpowers initiated a geopolitical approach to science diplomacy, the article coins the term “cold hybrid warfare” to scrutinize how science diplomacy could serve as a covert strategic asset to advance an unpublicized grand strategy in redefining cross-regional security architecture for global hegemony. By focusing on how the United States and the Soviet Union had deployed the collaborative troika of science, technology, and culture for diplomacy to ace each other out of the world order, the findings further suggest that the globalization of regions eventually emerged as the consequence of the superpowers’ commitment to a greater transregional connectivity within their respective defense perimeter, marking the paradigm shift from the bipolar order to the multipolar one.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs20-48170
“Violent non-state actors’ patterns of power: The case of Hezbollah” by Jaber, Boushra, Journal of Regional Security 20, (2): 299-328 (2025).
Abstract: Conventional International Relations emphasises the role of states as the primary actors, with control being the ultimate form of power. However, in today’s interconnected and intricate global landscape, non-state actors, particularly violent non-state actors (VNSAs), wield significant influence. This article seeks to understand the complex power dynamics of VNSAs and how they maintain dominance and exert influence in unstable environments. Focusing on Hezbollah as a primary case study, the research analyses the adaptive and coercive strategies this VNSA employs to navigate crises and assert control, often attempting to seize state authority. The research highlights Hezbollah’s unique military prowess, political strength, social standing, and ideological foundation. Through a detailed examination of Hezbollah’s interactions within Lebanon and its regional contexts, the article aims to reveal fluid patterns of power that challenge traditional notions of state sovereignty and authority. Ultimately, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of VNSAs’ resilience and strategic ingenuity. It offers insights into their broader implications for regional stability and international security while laying the groundwork for future comparative analyses of VNSAs in the MENA region and beyond.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs20-52682
“Between trauma and transformation: Serbia’s evolving attachment to Kosovo” by Ramet, Sabrina P., and Altug Günal, Journal of Regional Security 20 (2): 329-52 (2025).
Abstract: Serbia’s policy regarding Kosovo is constrained and bounded by decades of propaganda, which have stoked constructed memories of the past so that Serbs think of the Battle of Kosovo of 1389 as a hugely important historical event and experience collective political trauma when they reflect on the loss of Kosovo. Thus, although more than 90% of the population of Kosovo is Albanian and want to maintain the independence of their Republic, against a mere 2.3% that are Serbs (according to the 2024 census in Kosovo), the Serbian political establishment has continued to insist that Serbia has an “eternal” right to rule Kosovo. The Kosovo myth, in which the 1389 Battle of Kosovo is just one component, albeit the central symbolic one in inter-generationally transmitted trauma, is both limiting and, for the regime, empowering, insofar as it promotes a degree of political homogenization, thereby constraining the political opposition. However, while some commentators write as if Serbs thought alike when it comes to Kosovo, survey data show a different picture, confirming that some Serbs are against this dominant narrative, and may even agree with articulate liberal advocates of recognition of Kosovo’s independence and promote a reassessment of the dominant narrative. The latter’s alternative narrative opens the possibility for Serbia to chart a different political course in the future.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs20-56992
“Contextualizing institutional approaches to radicalization in the Balkans, Middle East and North Africa” by Kapidžić, Damir, Muamer Hirkić, and Sead Turčalo, Journal of Regional Security 20 (1): 5-22 (2025).
Abstract: This article introduces the special issue that explores the impact of institutions on radicalization and violent extremism (VE) in the Balkans and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It sets a common theoretical framework based on new institutionalism, and defines how norms, rules, practices, and relationships within and between institutional actors shape political and policymaking behaviors. Seven potential drivers of radicalization that will be considered throughout all case studies in the special issue are introduced. Through a comparative and contextual approach, all papers examine these seven drivers that include territorial inequalities, economic deprivation, political ideas, cultural factors, religion, digital literacy, and transnational dynamics, in relation to institutional practices and interactions. The analytical framework defines a common research methodology that is based on interviews and focus groups with representatives of various types of institutions, including state institutions, civil society organizations, international organizations, religious institutions, and media outlets. The findings in this article broaden traditional perspectives of VE by highlighting country-specific and complex forms of institutional practices and interactions, as well as by contrasting perceptions of drivers in different geographical and institutional contexts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs20-43737
“Stealth conflicts: Unpacking the causes of underreported and invisible wars” by Konečná, Lucie, Journal of Regional Security 19 (2): 185-206 (2024).
Abstract: This study aims to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions that contribute to categorizing certain conflicts as “stealth,” meaning significant yet underreported or overlooked, as opposed to conflicts well-covered by the media. Focusing on cases in Asia and Africa from 2014 to 2024, the research employs qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to assess six conditions for the conflict to be recognized as a stealth conflict derived from Hawkins’ theory which explains that conflicts are overlooked when key actors (policy makers, media, the public, and academia) are not engaged due to factors such as national/political interest, geographic proximity and access, ability to identify with conflict participants, ability to sympathize with victims, simplicity (how easy it is to understand a conflict) and sensationalism (involves events that are dramatic and attention-grabbing). Our findings suggest that a lack of simplicity and limited sensationalism are key factors in hindering the visibility of conflicts, especially in regions like West Papua and Balochistan. The analysis reveals that there are two necessary conditions and three sufficient conditions that influence the visibility of conflicts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs19-54950
“Shadows of empire: post-Soviet parastates in Russian foreign policy” by
Hardy, John, and Oana Vlad Ruxandra, Journal of Regional Security 19 (2): 207-36 (2024).
Abstract: The post-Soviet period has seen dramatic political upheaval across Eastern Europe and the Caucuses. The shadow cast by centuries of Russian influence on Eurasia still affects political tensions in the region. Previous studies have examined both Russian foreign policy in the twenty-first century and the implications of parastates on Russia’s periphery. This study focuses on the intersection of these issues, identifying parastates as a political wedge used by Moscow to maintain buffer states between its borders and NATO. It presents a comparative analysis of three parastates that are supported by Russia: Transnistria in Moldova, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. The study finds that Russia supports post-Soviet parastates to perpetuate political stalemates that undermine stability in countries that act as buffers between Russian and NATO borders. This highlights opportunities for further research on a foreign policy tool that can be used to significantly influence regional security.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs19-53721
“Images of (in)security: Visualizing borders, migrants and control in Serbia’s news media” by Krstić, Aleksandra, Journal of Regional Security 19 (1): 59-76 (2024).
Abstract: Media images of borders and their control have been one of the most dominant frames in reporting on the migrant crisis in European media and the negative coverage of the topic of migrants, presenting them as a threat to security and public health dominates media narratives around the world. This paper examines the way migrants and refugees have been portrayed on the borders of Serbia, a transit country alongside the Western Balkans migration corridor. The mixed method analysis is based on 300 images published in relevant national and regional print media and their online versions from 2015 until 2020. The results show that the visual depiction of walls, wires, control, law and order, modern technological equipment, security providers, and important political authorities have been often intensified with sensational headlines and tabloid coverage and at the same time confronted with images framing migrants as violent and deviant, threatening borders, people, and security.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41755
“On “Westsplaining,” realism, and technologies of the Self: A Foucauldian reading of the realist commentary on Ukraine” by Kazharski, Aliaksei, Journal of Regional Security 19 (1): 77-96 (2024).
Abstract: The article offers a Foucauldian reading of the Western realist commentary on the Russo-Ukrainian war which often faces the charges of “Westsplaining. ” It situates this commentary in the broader context of knowledge production and the power-knowledge nexūs it reproduces and conceptualizes realism as a discourse in the Foucauldian sense. As the article argues, this conceptualization allows one to capture its specific technologies of power which, in this case, can be understood as a form of technology of the Self, or, in other words, the disciplining of the collective subjects of world politics (nation-states) through the specifically realist constructs of rationality and prudence that all states are expected to adhere to in the making of their foreign policy. Additionally, the article suggests that this conceptualization of realism as a discourse can be analytically helpful in making sense of the way in which very different genres such as academic research and the op-ed policy commentary, frequently provided by realist IR scholars, are connected through the political economy of knowledge production, thus forming a relationship of discursive symbiosis and mutual legitimation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs19-48501
“Putin’s understanders, Russia’s normalizers: Discursive palettes beyond the East-West divide” by Makarychev, Andrey, Yulia Kurnyshova, Stefano Braghiroli, Aliaksei Kazharski, Sanshiro Hosaka, Radityo Dharmaputra, and Clarissa Tabosa, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 5-8 (2023).
Abstract: This Forum focuses on a variety of discourses that in one way or another “understand” and normalize the logic of Putin’s war against Ukraine. These discourses have different epistemologies – some of them might simply reproduce Russian propagandistic cliches, while others are embedded in – and adjusted to – specific national contexts; some of them emanate from political milieus, while others have academic pedigrees. Of particular interest for the reader is a comparative frame of the Forum that gives floor to European and non-European perspectives on the topic that at some point resonate, engage, and communicate with each other. The authors discuss social and cultural conditions that produce professional and vernacular narratives sympathetic to or compatible with the Russian officialdom, and deploy them in different theoretical contexts – from neorealist to post-colonial.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-43878
“Semiotic games and domestic geopolitics: Estonian Russophones during the war in Ukraine” by Makarychev, Andrey, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 19-28 (2023).
Abstract: This contribution to the Forum analyzes narratives unfolding among Estonian Russian speakers who expose different attitudes towards the war in Ukraine. For this analysis the author selected several media platforms and public figures whose speaking positions are representative and typical for – and duly reflect – the entire spectrum of the current Russophone discourses in Estonia. The analysis singles out three distinct yet interconnected discursive positions that prominently feature in the Russophone milieu – pragmatic, popularly geopolitical and counter-normative.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41781
“Europe’s Russia-friendly parties put to the test by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine” by Braghiroli, Stefano, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 29-38 (2023).
Abstract: Over the last decade, a number of non-mainstream European parties have cultivated friendly and mutually advantageous relations with the Russian political establishment. This phenomenon has been common to both the national conservative right and the radical left. This article critically discusses these parties’ adaptation to the new political context triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and assesses their strategies and tactics to adapt to the new reality. The cases analysed include primarily Western European Russia-friendly political forces and the level of analysis focuses both on the domestic and supranational EU-level dynamics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41766
“Do ostriches live in Central Europe?: Normalizing the Russian attack on Ukraine in the Visegrád Four” by Kazharski, Aliaksei, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 39-46 (2023).
Abstract: The study surveys instances of discursive normalization of the Russian attack on Ukraine across the Visegrád Four (V4) countries, examining political discourses in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Following February 24, 2022, the strategies that expressed an open backing of Russia were mostly marginalized becoming morally all but impossible and thus politically too costly. However, other and more indirect ways of showing “understanding” if not support for Moscow’s actions soon (re)emerged. These included presenting the war in “realist-geopolitical” terms, as a proxy for the (allegedly inevitable) competition between great powers and a “neutralist-pacifist” discourse that criticized the Western military aid to Ukraine. In a broader sense, both discourses can be viewed as anchored in collective memories of the tragic Central European past that have traditionally infused the national identities in the V4 with a sense of vulnerability. The grim “realist” image of the world also rhymes well with the regional rise of the populist political style that hinges on the stated need to protect the “underdog” people and replaces the imperatives of solidarity with those of “self-help.”.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-43201
“Non-Western responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine: Learning from Indonesia“, by Dharmaputra, Radityo, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 59-68 (2023).
Abstract: Using Indonesia, one of the leading voices in the so-called Global South, I trace the diverse narratives of non-Western elites on interpreting the war in Ukraine, the relationship between Russia and the “non-Western” world, and the NATO factors. The lack of knowledge about Russia and Ukraine, coupled with the strong anti-Western sentiment, has created a more proRussian sentiment in the Indonesian narratives about the war. This tendency was made stronger by the postcolonial thinking in Indonesian elite discourse, creating an ‘understander’ narrative rooted in the local postcolonial history instead of being driven by external, material factors.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41779
“Brazil between global recognition and neutrality over the Russian war against Ukraine” by Tabosa, Clarissa, Journal of Regional Security 18 (1): 69-76 (2023).
Abstract: This contribution investigates what explains Brazil’s neutrality narrative regarding the Russian war against Ukraine. Brazil’s position can be seen as a consequence of the economic interests of Brazilian agrobusiness, but mainly due to its historical tradition of diplomatic neutrality. However, neutrality seems to clash with Brazil’s self-conceptualization as being a relevant player at the international level, especially since the 2000s. I show how this identitarian clash has led to an attempt to move from “neutrality” to an “impartiality” discourse, and argue that Brazil might partially align with the West to meet core strategic foreign policy goals.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5937/jrs18-41792
