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Joining of Japan to the Trans-Pacific Partnership has attracted the attention and launched controversy in the Japanese and international community. The essence of the disagreement is a question whether the membership in this wide integration will provide more benefits or disadvantages to the highly developed, but also highly protected Japanese economy. The advantages of joining of Japan to the TPP have been identified using two basic quantitative tools: the real effective exchange rate, which suggests the potential export markets, relying on its purchasing power, and second, the coefficient of conformity to calculate structural adjustment between the Japanese export and the import of the suggested markets. The results of both analyses, like a previous analysis of other authors and institutions, show a great opportunity for Japanese industry. Some of the expected challenges for Japanese economy are also analysed, especially the danger of excessive opening of some of the most protected sectors of the Japanese economy and weak agriculture facing strong competition from other members. This paper shows the sidedness and simplification of both kinds of previous assessment about “great” perspective of Japanese industry, but also of the “collapse” of Japanese agriculture. Second, the same results of the research show that, in the light of the recent abandonment of Partnership by new American President Donald Trump, Japan found itself in an unenviable position. Further implementation of the Agreement can have only harmful consequences on the Japanese economy.

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Economic cooperation and integration on regional level represent a very attractive phenomenon in the period after World War II. The first examples of such integration we can notice on the European continent between states of the western European hemisphere. If we analyze from the economic point of view, we can draw a conclusion that cooperation between states which are geographically closer is always productive and fulfilled with positive effects for all parties. The North American Free Trade Agreement also represents an example whose main objective was deepening and widening the economic cooperation between the USA, Canada and Mexico. This article represents discussion on the topic of justification of the U.S. President Donald Trump decision to renegotiate NAFTA. It stresses the problem with the equality in free market trade. Although the idea of eliminating trade barriers between aforementioned neighbouring countries should have only positive results, this example of trade liberalization also showed negative impacts. It is primarily because it was not equally accepted and implemented by all partners, during 23 years, but also because of differences in the level of economic development and wage divergence between countries signatories. The authors concluded that there is no doubt that NAFTA should be renegotiated, but it should be transparent and in accordance with a common interest for all three member states.

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“Open Door Policy” marked the turning point in the history of the economic development of China, since it meant that China was opening to the foreign investments. Since 1979 until today China has become one of the top countries in the world to receive foreign direct investments (FDI). Chinese economy is the second largest economy in the world, with one of the strategic goals of the Chinese Government being to become number one. In order to achieve that result, China shifted its previous focus from FDI to OFDI (outward foreign direct investment). It started to implement completely different strategy, and tried to spread its business abroad. During the implementation of the 10th (2001-2005) and 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) the “Go Global” policy was emphasized as one of the most important strategic policies in China. Because of that Chinese OFDI started to rise, and in 2016 they reached impressive US$ 247 billion. This paper will analyze the historical development of “Going Global” policy, and look upon the effects, results, changes and challenges that have appeared in the process so far.

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In this paper, the author argues that Donald Trump so far failed to make expected radical changes in United States foreign policy, because he does not have a coherent grand strategy. This is an alternative argument to the one according to which he does have a grand strategy, but is too weak against the foreign-policy establishment to apply it. A definition of grand strategy as a “state’s theory how to produce security for itself ” is taken from Barry Posen. According to Posen, there are four criteria for classifying grand strategies (objectives, premises, means and positions), while a grand strategy serves four functions (priorities, coordination, communication and accountability). Trump’s predecessors in the post-Cold War period favored a liberal hegemony grand strategy, to which Posen opposes an alternative strategy of restraint. A theoretical framework of the paper is a neoclassical realist foreign policy model which considers a sound grand strategy necessary to produce a change in foreign policy when other factors (distribution of power in the international system, the state’s identity) favor the inertia in foreign policy. Since this is not the case with Trump, the United States is still waiting for a president with a grand strategy of restraint.

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The global refugee crisis has had a profound impact on European countries, reigniting a long-standing debate about how to successfully integrate religious Muslim minorities into liberal democratic societies. In recent years, much of the European public discourse has focused on the apparent failure of the politics of multiculturalism, which was adopted by some European countries as a functional tool to help the integration of a growing number of minorities into European societies. However, these policies, for the most part, had adversary effects on the migrant communities, alienating them from the majority populations and pushing them into cultural ghettos which function almost completely separately from the mainstream society. The recent flow of mostly Muslim migrants, which overwhelmed some European states, only served to accentuate the existing problems of multiculturalism policies, further alienating existing minorities and deepening the rift between them and the majority populations. It has also influenced the rise of nationalism and the popularity of the right-wing political parties, which can be seen as one of the results of the failed policies of multiculturalism. Since the migration flow to Europe is continuing, despite the official closure of the so-called Balkan route, it will most probably continue to impact the ethnic politics in various European countries, strengthening nationalist political parties and movements and putting further emphasis on the cultural differences between various ethnic communities living side by side in European societies.

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This paper deals with the status of the United Kingdom (UK) in the unstable European international relations following the referendum on the European Union (EU). It also deals with the UK’s capability to survive in spite of being transformed into a country of four nations. It seems that the devolution process in the UK, analysed at the beginning of this paper, does not create an obstacle to the UK’s independent acting in globalisation. The advocacy of a new vision of the UK’s global presence in world politics after leaving the EU requires full and responsible implementation of such idea by the UK Government. Actually, due to its global presence in the evolution of international relations, the UK endeavours to be a state capable of redefining its reason of state, independently from one of the EU members. Therefore, the UK could be an independent actor in international relations that promotes globalisation in the name of the new vision for a ‘Global Britain’. In order to achieve this vision, the author points out that gender equality is a priority, particularly in pursuing the policy of integrated management of human and natural resources. To that end, the importance of gender roles is emphasised. All discussion is in favour of the focus of the paper: the re-puzzling over the functioning of international relations in Europe and globalisation after Brexit.

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Strengthening the Institutional Memory of the Office of the President of the General Assembly becomes a separate cluster of the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly on the 64th session. The Office of the President of the General Assembly is faced with many problems, including the lack of financial resources as well as the lack of human resources. This function is relatively unknown to the general public and it had been overshadowed by the Secretary General. The paper analyses the role and the position of the President of the General Assembly as well as the work and progress of the Ad Hoc Working Group for the revitalization of the General Assembly on this issue. Some progress has been achieved, but the most important problems remain unsolved.