There are 7.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Syria, and an additional 5 million people have taken refuge in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Among these countries, due to its open border policy, Turkey has received the largest number of Syrian refugees. As of 31 August 2016, there are more than 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. This article will concentrate on the findings of a recent qualitative and quantitative study conducted among Syrian refugees in Istanbul, with a particular focus on their strong attachment to this city. I shall claim that historical, cultural and religious forms of affinity are likely to particularly attach the Sunni-Muslim-Arab-Syrians originating from Aleppo province to Istanbul. This article is expected to contribute to the discipline of Refugee Studies by shedding light on the historical and human elements, which are often the missing elements in such analysis.

The aim of the paper is to present the current trends in the migration flows of Central and Eastern-European (CEE) countries in the light of socio-economic transition and core-periphery relations. To view migration as a broader process of social and economic development, post-accession mobility information will be analysed within a multi-scalar approach, across time and space, considering first the migration pattern from the CEE countries towards other EU regions in general, and then with a special emphasis on Romania in the light of the 2007 EU enlargement process. The spatial variation of migration was investigated using Moran’s I and Gi* statistics, which is a useful tool for identification of spatial patterns. Alongside the analysis of migration processes between receiving and sending areas (core and periphery regions) the author will discuss how the position of the core and periphery could change, with economic development taking place in a number of periodic waves. Based on the transnationalism paradigm, the author will also highlight the impact of migrants’ changed mobility practices and behaviour on the locality of origin.

The 2014 European Parliament (EP) election resulted in the rise of populist right-wing parties (PRPs). This paper aims to answer: why PRPs were able to rise in the 2014 EP election; what messages were delivered by the election results regarding European integration; and whether or not policy-makers addressed the messages correctly with the right policy responses? After examining the competing interpretations, this paper argues that a deep disillusionment and crisis of trust in the political establishment, which derived from the long neglect of deteriorating distributional justice and fairness in European integration, which became acute after the euro crisis mismanagement, explains the 2014 EP election results. This paper, accordingly, argues that policy redirection of EU economic governance and the addressing of a ‘social Europe’ are required to regain political trust. After assessing the policy responses taken by the EU, an economic Europe is expected to revive, but the required social Europe will still remain absent.

Most policymakers and academics predicted that the European monetary union would lead to economic and institutional modernizaon in its least productive members – Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In fact, apart from Ireland, these countries became even more corrupt and their governments even less effective. This paper suggests an explanation that links the reluctance of peripheral countries to reform with the increase in their corruption levels. It also argues that their societies were stuck in a collective action problem: individuals have understood that corruption is antithetical to institutional quality and reform, but, as they cannot trust each other to refrain from corrupt practices, they stand to lose individually from not being corrupt themselves. Monetary union was seen as an external authority that would resolve this problem. Yet weak EU and eurozone monitoring and sanctioning discouraged the formation of social norms while making it attractive for formerly non-corrupt actors to engage in corruption, given the low risk of being caught. Survey evidence supports growth in perceptions of corruption and bribery, along with the weakening of social trust, trust in the police and in politicians across the periphery after the euro’s introduction.

The objective of this work is to analyse the factors that influence a greater or lesser inequality in income distribution in the 27 EU countries, paying particular attention to the effect that the economic crisis has had. For this purpose we have used panel data covering a period of 16 years (from 1996 to 2011, inclusive), and we have introduced additional variables over and above those normally used, such as the ideology of the governing party, the economic freedom index, as well as the ‘crisis’ variable. The results obtained enable us to conclude that while the economic crisis has not necessarily caused a worsening in inequality, the response of European governments by means of social policy has not so far proved effective in the fight against the lack of equality in income distribution.

Although the relationship between military expenditures and economic growth is well documented for the old members of the European Union, empirically little is known for the new members. Thus, the goal of this paper is to investigate the economic impact of military expenditures in Central and Eastern European countries employing panel cointegration and causality methods for the period 1993–2013. Findings indicate that the variables in question do not move together in the long run and the direction of causality in the short run is from economic growth to military expenditures. The implications of the results for international relations are discussed.

This article analyses the economic cooperation and political disagreements between Russia and Turkey, focusing on the Putin–Erdogan (2003–2014) period. The analysis depends therefore on economic, socio-cultural, military and political dimensions of the relations between the two neighbouring countries. The article aims to contribute to efforts that try to comprehend the past, present, and future of Russian–Turkish relations. It can be mentioned that Russian–Turkish relations have both positive and negative aspects, and the crucial questions in this respect are: Will the pragmatism stimulated by economic expectations be sufficient to ignore political paradoxes? Are further political relations, such as strategic alliances and/or partnerships, possible between these two countries?

Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) was one of the most significant thinkers of the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first democracy. His work, notably the two-volume, 1200-page Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Decline of the West, 1918/22), had a profound influence on the intellectual discourses of the time in Germany and beyond.1 Yet, despite the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries, his thought has been seriously under-researched. In English, only four major studies have appeared in the last 70 years.2 This is all the more surprising in that the historical period in which he wrote has been extensively covered by both English- and German-language scholars and that some of the thinkers who drew critically on his ideas, such as Heidegger and Adorno, have become household names in Germany intellectual history.

In the current article the author aims to answer four specific questions. (1) What would have happened if Austria and Serbia had not gone to war in July 1914, which implies an exercise in counterfactual history, and the study of the probable outcome if events had taken a different course? (2) What exactly was Austria’s war aim? (3) What precisely was Britain’s war aim? (4) What would have happened if Britain had stayed out of the continental war?

This article will shed new light on the already crowded area of Marco Polo research, by examining the perspective of Polo, his direct observation of Kublai Khan and Yuan China, as revealed in The Travels of Marco Polo. The paper analyses the sources of Polo’s perspective on the people he encountered on his travels in foreign lands. It argues that Polo’s ideas were shaped by his cultural background, personal experience and his own interests. Then it examines how the work presents Kublai Khan himself, as well as the Yuan empire’s monetary system, its waterway trade and its ethnic policy. The result of this investigation shows that Polo was an acute observer; he pointed out occasions of misrule despite his adoration of Kublai Khan.