Marija Đorić

The subject of research is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on violent extremism and organized crime in the Republic of Serbia. The authors used the method of document content analysis and quantitative methods (surveys) for research purposes. The time of the research included the most intense period of the pandemic, and the authors investigated the situation in the Republic of Serbia from March 2020, when the virus was first registered, to mid-2021. The initial hypothesis in the research is that violent extremism and organized crime adapt very quickly to new social changes, which makes them resilient to many social crises. Serbia has a long history of fighting etno-separatist extremism (e.g. the KLA terrorist organization), but the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the growth of other forms of extremism, such as religious, left-wing, while special attention is focused on right-wing extremism. Namely, the authors determined that in addition to the old generators (what is the post-conflict legacy), we also have two new crucial generators of the extreme right - the COVID-19 pandemic and the migrant crisis. All the fundamental issues on which the extreme right-wingers built their ideology (such as Kosovo and Metohija, the friend-enemy dichotomy) were pushed aside during the pandemic, in order to actualize the problems concerning the "infestation of migrants", conspiracy theories, vaccinations, 5G networks and of panic fear for the survival of the nation. Organized crime also found a way to adapt to the pandemic, and some new areas appeared that criminals quickly prioritized, such as the trade-in of deficient medical equipment, falsification of PCR tests, etc. Drug trafficking was particularly intense, and the Customs Administration seized during the pandemic from 01.03.2020 to 01.08.2021 5630.53 grams of cocaine, which is 60 percent more than in 2019; 2063 grams of heroin, which is a drop to only 5 percent of the total seizure in 2019. In the same period, 1,180 tablets of ecstasy and MDMA were seized, which is five times more than in 2019, as well as 36 weapons. The conclusion is that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the change in the functioning of violent extremism and organized crime, thus confirming the initial hypothesis of the author, that these are "tough phenomena" that adapt very quickly and easily to emerging social crises. which is down to just 5 percent of total seizures in 2019. In the same period, 1,180 tablets of ecstasy and MDMA were seized, which is five times more than in 2019, as well as 36 weapons. The conclusion is that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the change in the functioning of violent extremism and organized crime, thus confirming the initial hypothesis of the author, that these are "tough phenomena" that adapt very quickly and easily to emerging social crises. which is down to just 5 percent of total seizures in 2019. In the same period, 1,180 tablets of ecstasy and MDMA were seized, which is five times more than in 2019, as well as 36 weapons. The conclusion is that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the change in the functioning of violent extremism and organized crime, thus confirming the initial hypothesis of the author, that these are "tough phenomena" that adapt very quickly and easily to emerging social crises.

In this paper, challenges most often faced by young researchers who deal with extremism are analysed. The amorphousness of this phenomenon, temporal and spatial conditionality, as well as numerous indistinctions regarding its definition, make extremism quite interesting, albeit complex for research. The author first explained the nature of the phenomenon of extremism, and then highlighted its characteristic forms and classification criteria. The paper provides explicit guidelines on how young researchers can collect data with the help of relevant research methods. The challenges most common faced by young researchers in the beginning of their research are hereby listed, as well as advice on how to overcome these challenges. The main goal of the paper is to present a realistic overview of all difficulties that researching extremism entails, but at the same time to shed light on new scientific approaches that can be useful.

In this paper, the authors research possible abuse of artificial intelligence for extremist and terrorist purposes. Having the growing digitalization and robotization of the society in mind, it is completely realistic to be expecting a growing abuse of artificial intelligence in the security context, which will definitely be abused by extremist and terrorist groups. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be divided into five basic categories: 1) interactive AI (example: personal assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Alexa); 2) functional AI (robots); 3) analytical AI (data analysis, machine learning); 4) textual AI (text recognition, conversion of speech into textual form); 5) visual AI (augmented reality technology). However, IT experts, engineers, and analysts all agree that, in the contemporary times, not a single researcher acts only within one of the previously mentioned fields, but conducts research and bases their products on an interdisciplinary approach to the said types of AI. Throughout a series of case studies, the authors analyse numerous ways in which terrorists might abuse artificial intelligence, with a special emphasis on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, that is, drones. Drones have stepped out of the phase of experimental models for conducting reconnaissance missions and entered the historical stage as a weapon on February 04, 2002, when a Predator, piloted by the hand of a member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted the first airstrike in Khost in Afghanistan, with the goal of eliminating Usama bin Laden. Since that moment, UAVs are present as a method of eliminating the enemy in the majority of conflicts. In this paper are contemporary trends regarding the definition of extremism and terrorism elaborated, the points of contact and the points of distancing between them are determined, followed by a detailed analysis of examples of abuse of drones by terrorist organizations, such as the so-called “Islamic State” and “Hezbollah”, as well as the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. The main purpose of the paper is to estimate the danger extremists and terrorists pose to the contemporary society in the context of abuse of artificial intelligence. The conclusion is that, in the coming future, extremists will more and more use artificial intelligence for conducting their activities, including terrorist attacks.

In this paper, the authors analyzed the extent of impact of the Saudi Coalition on the internal political, and consequentally the national security of Yemen. The innitial goal of this research is the analysis of motives of Saudi Arabia for engaging in the civil war in Yemen, with the final goal of identifying the results of interventionist activities of the Saudi Coalition in the field, as well as the unforeseeable negative changes in the political and security situation in this country. With the use of content analysis, the autors expressed the discourse propagated by all actor included in the Yemeni conflict – the internationally recognized government, the Southern Transitional Council and the Houthis, as well as the official discourse of the Saudi Coalition, with the goal of expressing the extent of the significance of foreign medling, as well as its impact on the Yemeni national security. By presenting the active actors, as well as the well-hidden ones, such as Iran, the authors tracked the roots of the idea of a foreign military intervention in Yemen, as well as the consequences it had for the Yemeni people.In the end, the authors confirmed that not only that the intervention impacted human security in the country, but also that the support given to the STC, as well as ignoring the political context of the problem, caused a rebirth of ethno-separatist aspirations, which might further hinder the Yemeni national security.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relation between the concepts of violence and nonviolence in the political theory. How these two concepts are correlated? Where is the dividing line between violence and nonviolence? By analysing some theoretical presuppositions of violence and nonviolence the author seeks to contribute to the scope of the political theory. Rather than presenting an anthology of different definitions of the violence and nonviolence, the intention of this article is to analyse different definitional criteria proposed by social scientists. In this regard, it will be first analysed the concept of violence in political theory. The analysis will be focused on the correlation between violence and power, force and aggression, as well as on the typologies of violence. Then, it will be analysed the concept of nonviolence and its relation with the concept of violence. The author concludes that violence and nonviolence are intertwined within the human society and thus create a dialectic circle.

This paper focuses on an analysis of political and scientific reflections by academic Mihailo Marković, with special review of the links existing between ideology and science. Unlike ideology, whose scope is limited in terms of value and science, Mihailo Marković regards philosophy as a science open to all humankind. A prominent place in Marković’s research belonged to the conservative ideology and in this context, distinction was made between the conservative spirit in its broader sense, manifested in its views on art, creation and all other segments of life and conservatism as an ideological and political position. The aim of this paper is to explore Mihailo Marković's approach to the value system proposed by conservative ideology, leading to the author’s conclusion that Marković had an objectively critical approach in his analysis of conservatism. Marković discovered a humanistic alternative to all forms of conservatism, proposing radical democratic socialism as a appropriate substitute model.

Classical paradigms characterize left-oriented governments as being more interventionist in the economy than right-oriented ones. Nevertheless, many factors have influenced economic policy changes in modern parties. The paper first gives a literary review of parties’ orientation towards intervention in the economy. Secondly, a comparative analysis of economic policies is done for selected developed economies, combining the governments’ left-right composition with trends in their economic freedom. Finally, the paper summarizes main similarities and differences between left and right governments as to economic interventionism. The aim of the paper is to show how different economic policies with regard to market restrictiveness should change traditional perceptions of ideological inclination to economic interventionism. Our findings underscore the need for building a new ‘economic ideology’ map, as complement to traditional party classifications.