The rule of law is the cornerstone of democracy and the European Union accession process. Independent judiciary is an important facet of the rule of law, while judicial competence and judicial self-governance are among its elements. One of the dimensions of judicial self-governance is its educational function. By using dogmatic, exegetic and empirical legal methods, the paper examines the extent to which the demands formulated in interim benchmarks for Chapter 23 are aligned with the well-balanced approach to the principle of judicial self-governance and, further, the manner in which such self-governance is implemented in practice within the framework of the process for the adoption of the multiannual work program of the Serbian Judicial Academy. The authors conclude that the plan preparation process represents an adequate platform for duly observing the said concept, while the program itself can contribute to improving the competence of judges and, consequently, strengthening their independence.

Nemačka nacionalna svest, kada se poredi s drugim nacijama, formirana je kasnije, ali joj je trebalo manje vremena da sazri i nastupi u punini svojih zahteva. Dok je proces nacionalnog sazrevanja i uzdizanja nacionalne ideje kod drugih naroda potrajao čitav vek, pa i više, kod Nemaca se to odigralo u znatno kraćem periodu. Da bi se to dogodilo, morale su postojati pretpostavke, stvorene kroz duži vremenski period. Ukazujemo na činioce, političke i kulturne, koji su sastavni deo istorijskog procesa u formiranju nemačke nacije, koji su u konačnom odredili njenu prirodu i karakter nemačkog nacionalizma.

The paper will analyze two speeches of historical importance for international relations and oratory of the 21st century. The first one is the speech of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, of 21 February 2022, which is considered the most significant official announcement of Russia about the events in Ukraine, and the second one is the speech of 24 February 2022 as its logical, meaningful and contextual continuation. Those two speeches, broadcast on multiple channels and media, last for an hour and a half and contain a multitude of material facts exposed through special rhetorical procedures, most often rhetorical examples of misunderstandings. The perspective of the Russian side which could not be seen in the pro-Western media is also given here. It sets up a euphemistic reinterpretation of the events eristically presented in the foreign media as an invasion, an aggression, a war conflict and an attack.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 can also be traced back to historical processes and not only to contingent causes. In this paper, I will try to understand whether it is possible to argue that the current armed conflict in Ukraine is a long-term effect of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The aim of the research is to critically analyze the interpretations that see in the NATO intervention against Yugoslavia a historical turning point and what consequences it had. The research is based on the current scholarly literature and on the speeches of Russian state officials, and is carried out adopting an historical approach and a comparative method.

Neurosociology is a relatively new interdisciplinary field of science. It is a discipline that lies on the borders between sociology, social psychology, biology and neurosciences. This scientific field offers an opportunity for better understanding interactions between brain and interpersonal functioning by analyzing the influence of social factors on creating brain organization and its functions.

The article examines the Russia / "Collective West" conflict since Vladimir Putin's Munich speech at 2007 to last Ukrainian crisis. Using classic conflict theories expounded by L. Coser, R. Dahrendorf, K. Boulding, L. Kriesberg, the author analyzes the tendency of the gradual prevalence of the conflict of values over the conflict of interests in Russia/"Collective West" relations. It opines that the irrationalization of the conflict makes non-realistic improvements to conflict that loses its previous ontological features, attachment to a geographical, cultural or political location, and the goals that it manifests acquire an existential character. The author concludes that only the return of the conflict to the basic state of the conflict of interests is able to connect peace initiatives with the real interests of all parties again.

The subject of the undertaken research is the analysis of geopolitical and geoeconomic changes in the multipolar world of the 21st century, which lead to the transformation of the world system. There is an ongoing evolution of the geostrategic position of the United States of America (USA), the rise of China, as well as the division of the world that occurred with the offensive activities of Russia and the expansion of other countries such as India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. The goal of the research is to emphasize, in addition to the basic geopolitical component, the importance of the geoeconomic component, as derived, in international relations, which is often less clearly visible in the background of many international conflicts and alliances. The main thesis of the paper is that dominant geostrategic powers such as the USA, China and Russia follow their long-term geopolitical and geoeconomic interests and goals putting them into conflicting or allied relations, which is again responsible for the configuration of power and the relationship between the great powers in the arena of world politics. The paper applies a multidisciplinary combined method that is based on political and economic sciences, and sometimes studies broader geopolitical processes or focuses on a narrower geoeconomic analysis of individual parameters.

The paper focuses on the relationship between personal data protection and technologies of artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of threats to the psychological security of society on the case study of the Russian Federation. The research identifies existing and prospective risks of malicious use of AI involving personal data to affect the psyche of people. The paper examines the possibilities of a comprehensive response to new threats of psychological security. The research methodology is based on the systemic approach, dialectical method and comparative analysis of the national and international components of the research problem.

The conceptual framework for the discussion the paper introduces is the idea of Russian messianism, which appeared in each period of Russian history, as well as the following characteristic of Russian mentality: the concepts and ideas, which appeared within the domains of social and legal in the West, were interpreted in spiritual and moral context in Russia. The paper traces the development of two aspects of how the conceptual opposition of Russia to the "collective West" was formed. The first aspect is connected with the cultural opposition of Russia to the Western countries in terms of spiritual heredity of the West. The aspect concerns the conceptualization of "the West" as an embodiment of a competitor of Russia in the modifications of the "big project".

The main research objective of this article was to assess the nature of the democratization of Russia's political system in the period 1985-2000. The authors analyze the selected period of the transformation in Russia based on the concept of S. Huntington, considered the most adequate theory of democratization. The authors attempted to answer following questions: what changes occurred during the "Perestroika" process initiated by M. Gorbachev - unsuccessful liberalization for Soviet Russia and "started" the Third wave of democratization of the Russian Federation; secondly, what was the specificity of the democratization of the political system during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin; and lastly, when the retreat from democratization began in Russia. This analysis seems quite sensible due to the fact that it can explain the reasons for the retreat from democracy during the presidency of V. Putin and the construction of an authoritarian state in Russia in the 21st century. In order to verify the hypotheses and answer the research questions, the classic method for the social sciences was chosen (the decision-making, systemic, and case study methods).

The paper discusses the context of rural schools, and the current state and possibilities for the development of inclusive education in them. The law of the Republic of Serbia stipulates that all children must have access to and complete primary education, which implies, among other things, inclusive education, whereby each school must develop its own construct that matches the social and cultural circumstances in which the school operates, and the different needs of its students. The paper examines the presence of inclusive characteristics of education and the possibilities for improving inclusive education from the standpoint of teachers, on the sample of 160 teachers from 25 rural schools in Zlatibor district. A descriptive method and a survey method were applied. A special questionnaire for teachers, created for the purposes of this research, was used as the instrument. The results show that teachers estimate most of the characteristics of inclusive education as being present in their school, with the exception of inclusive teaching resources and assistive technologies. They see providing professional support and additional training for working with students who need support as the most important opportunity for improving the process of inclusive education.

The aim of this paper is to determine the effects of the transition on the standard of living and social inequality in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Russia. In order to establish a market economy, these countries started economic and systemic reforms at the end of the 1980s. The goal of the transition was the establishment of a market economy and macroeconomic stability, and to ensure a higher standard of living because (with the exception of Slovenia) the GDP per capita in these countries was significantly lower than the average of the EU countries. Although they applied different approaches in the implementation of the transition, it is characteristic for all countries that in the first phase of the transition (until the mid-1990s), they had the problem of recession and hyperinflation, which, together with the inadequate privatization process, was reflected in the decline of the standard of living (in Slovenia and Russia) and the growth of inequality. Only after establishing institutional reforms and attracting FDI, in the second transition phase (until the end of the 1990s), macroeconomic stability was established, which contributed to the growth of living standards (except for Russia) and the reduction of inequality (except in Poland).

The conflict in Ukraine is the subject of contradictory narratives in the communication war, but also reflects the rival historical and geopolitical representations between the different actors of this conflict. According to the geopolitical angle, the main issue of the crisis in Ukraine is the rivalry between the great powers for world power and the distribution of geopolitical spaces. The geopolitical angle thus makes it possible to take into account the numerous stakes linked to this crisis on different scales, which go well beyond the purely geostrategic and military aspects. The main hypothesis of this article is to determine to what extent Russia, with its special military operation in Ukraine, is pushing for the emergence of a new geopolitical configuration on a European and global scale. Indeed, Moscow is provoking a redefinition of alliances at the regional and global levels. At the Eurasian level, NATO will probably no longer be able to pursue a policy of expansion in the Russian near abroad (countries of the former USSR), the enlargement of NATO to Ukraine being a casus belli, as the Russian intervention has shown. On a global scale, Russia's membership in the UN Security Council now prevents any unilateral interpretation of international law by the collective West. Moreover, economic sanctions by EU and NATO member states are not being followed by other states in Eurasia, South America and Africa, challenging the unipolar project of the West under the leadership of the United States. The European Union is increasingly aligned with the geopolitical priorities of NATO and the United States, with little room for manoeuvre. Russia's special operation in Ukraine is definitely moving the world towards a multicentric and multipolar geopolitical configuration, with no possibility of returning to the pre-conflict situation. In this analysis, geopolitical cartography will be used to illustrate the problematics but also to emphasize the spatial angle as an analytical tool.

The crisis of the West is perceived through the diminishing expansion of the postmodern paradigm to the non-Western parts of the world. The West entered the postmodern at the end of the 20th century, when liberalism remained alone in the political field, while the bipolar international order of the balance of power was destroyed. Liberal postmodernization of the world, initiated by globalization, was adamant. Postmodern liberalism imposed itself to the whole world as the only ideological matrix, whereas the global market and global corporations dictated the relations in the world. The Westphalian system of international relations, as one of the remaining modern categories implying the primacy of the sovereign state, began disappearing. However, the power of the hegemon USA as a military, political and ideological protector of globalization and postmodern, began dwindling in 2008 (a declining power). On the other hand, resistance emerged to the imposition of the postmodern. Russia was the first to adopt anti-liberal and anti-globalization laws (2013), which prompted the West to start a postmodern campaign against Russia. The USA and the West, faced with the increasing resistance, resort to geopolitical strategies from the period of the modern in order to preserve hegemony. Ukraine (as a postmodern creation in the mediation war against Russia) is geopolitically used against Russia). Russia opposes the postmodern West ideologically and geopolitically (by introducing spirituality and tradition in its public sphere) and it is geopolitically engaged in creating multipolarity and the balance of power. In this manner, Russia leaves the West. That creates a different paradigm, not only for Russia, but for the whole world. The paper considers the war a consequence and not a cause of the world crisis (which is also a consequence). The causes lie in the inability of the postmodern (in all its aspects) to impose itself onto the whole world.

After Chernenko's demise and Gorbachev's coming to power in 1985, the period known as perestroika began in the Soviet Union. Realignment led to an ostensible end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, thanks to Yeltsin's declaration of sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). As a consequence, former Soviet socialist republics, including Ukraine, became independent states. The United States of America declared victory in the Cold War and a new world order was established with the United States as the great hegemon. In this paper, our aim is to show that the ongoing conflict in the territory of Ukraine did not start either in 2022 or in 2014 (when the conflict became armed). Instead, the conflict was kick-started with the independent state of Ukraine being established in 1991, on historically Russian lands, the purpose of this exercise being to create a new Ukrainian nation. The thirty-year history of the Ukrainian state bears witness to its non-Russian and anti-Russian character, as well as to the undisguised influence of the United States of America, which was particularly evident in the so-called colour revolutions and the armed coup of 2014, which led to the overthrow of the legally elected president of this country, Viktor Yanukovych. Russian intervention in 2022, which has a global geopolitical character, shows that a new perestroika is in full play. Denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, declared as the main goals of the Russian Federation, are the fundamental measures of the new perestroika. If the Russian Federation succeeds in this endeavour, this would undoubtedly mark the end of U.S. hegemony, while a new multicentric world would be created. If Russian intervention turns out to be a failure, U.S. hegemony will be reconfirmed so that the interests of the Russian Federation would most likely be faced with a threat of further disintegration. Thus, this is not primarily a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but rather a decisive battle between Russia and the collective West led by the United States. This is the reason why the West is putting in a strenuous effort, and suffering substantial economic damage, to win this war. It defends Ukraine for its own sake, not for the sake of Ukraine itself. Not by their own choice, Ukrainians are in a tragic position in which their nation is used for the achievement of Western interests.

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Industry 5.0 (I5.0) are based on knowledge acquired in education and organized in the form of scientific research activities and materialized in technological innovations, new products and services. The aim of this paper is to consider various aspects of the mutual relationship between education and technologies I4.0 and I5.0. In addition to the fact that education affects the development of technological innovations, the production of new knowledge and educational profiles; technologies I4.0 and I5.0 have a direct impact on education, from changes in the organizational structure of educational institutions and teaching programmes, through the introduction of new technologies and knowledge in teaching, changes in learning methods, to the establishment of the obligation of continuous professional development of teachers. Since this paper has a theoretical character, the content analysis and the synthetic method will be mainly applied in it in order to arrive at relevant results.

This paper deals with the issues of the analysis of the behaviour of social media users in the context of security risk reduction in the digital environment. In this respect, the subject of this paper is the behaviour of social media users (mainly millennials, from the population of university students, attending studies in the field of security) depending on the gender. The aim of the research is to identify recommendations for a safer use of social media. To this end, the research was conducted on the basis of an anonymous survey comprising 15 questions (3 of demographic and 12 questions of essential significance). The survey covered 333 university students (undergraduate and graduate students of both genders) attending study programmes in the field of security. With the use of the Mann-Whitney test, contingency tables, the Kruskal-Wallis test, as well as the Spearman's rank correlation test, it has been established that the behaviour patterns of men and women who use social media are very similar, but that there is a substantial statistical difference in certain scenarios. In addition to this, this survey has shown that, irrespective of the gender, risks of being attacked are consciously taken when sharing personal information, along with a reckless use of devices, passwords, and passcodes. By comparing the above-mentioned conclusions with the position of the general hypothesis: "There are similarities and differences between men and women in terms of the behaviour patterns on social media and in the cyberspace in general", so the conclusion is that it is verified. One of the solutions to the identified problems in the behaviour of social media users is to raise their awareness regarding the risks of doing business and/or accessing entertainment content on social media, as well as their continuous training for the purpose of protecting their own data.

Of great importance are the readiness and capacity of future educators to recognize different specific needs of children and families in the local community and to analyze what the local community offers and what else may be offered. The research is aimed at testing the planned behaviour of students/future educators, having in mind their perception of potential entrepreneurial activity after completing their studies. The research involved 117 students who filled in the questionnaire for surveying their entrepreneurial intentions. It has been established that the subjective norm is not important in the intention of opening one's own enterprise. The obtained results are similar to those in other countries, and that is why the experience of their educational systems can be appreciated regarding the implementation of educational subjects and courses in the educational system programs of the Republic of Serbia.

The starting assumption is the opinion that Marković's opus is quite relevant for the re-examination of the role of the socially engaged intellectual, particularly in regional and global circumstances today. The basic procedures in dealing with the topic are: (1) presentation of Marković's main accomplishments, (2) analysis of the meaning and the place of the dialogue in communicative modalities of the opinion and (3) confirming the thesis about the harmful dialogue deficit through an illustrative example of the so-called collective West. The most important results refer to the explanation of the dissident and dialogue role of the socially responsible intellectual, as well as the corroboration of the opinions about Marković's proper attitude in that respect.

This paper deals with research into organisational difficulty and ethical dilemmas, as well as the efficiency of group therapy of men who were sent to group therapy treatments due to intimate partner relationship violence. This type of intervention has recently been recognised in Serbia as an important factor in the protection against domestic violence. Nevertheless, its use has remained sporadic and in order to be able to understand reasons for this, we have found helpful an analysis of the social context, but also the views of experts and the general public regarding domestic violence in our country. The public and experts alike have a firm position in terms of treating domestic violence perpetrators: batterers are almost as a rule male. The research question as the focal point of further analysis was the following: Whether or in which way such a discourse affects the work of practitioners and personal development of the clients - participants in group therapy? To obtain the answer, we have conducted an in-depth interview with one of practitioners in the Belgrade Marriage and Family Counselling Centre, who has been in charge of this programme since it was first launched (2012). As it turns out, both the practitioners and the clients are faced with multiple challenges. The practitioners are faced with their efforts being ignored by experts (by fellow practitioners and prosecutors and judges alike), the absence of systemic support and institutional networking, as well as with professional burnout. The clients often see themselves as victims of the system; they are the subject of a socially imposed ideological reshaping and, therefore, not infrequently they demonstrate resistance to efforts aimed at achieving their personal change and so they leave the programme before it is actually completed. Bearing in mind such outcomes, we believe that it is necessary to work on a change of the prevalent discourse relative to violence and possible ways of preventing violence, on recognising the significance of group therapy of batterers as a potentially important alternative route in working with victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and, finally, on initiating an interdisciplinary discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of sociotherapy treatment.

The progress achieved in the field of ICT has caused a major change in the paradigm of urban development, and research directed towards the development of smart cities is characterized as a central interest of modern society. Smart cities are designed as a kind of panacea for the accumulated problems of urban development. Although this idea is rooted in the achievements of ICT, the contemporary understanding of the concept implies that the smart city goes beyond the mere application of technology. Moreover, the holistic perspective emphasizes the primacy of human and social capital as the supporting pillars of a smart city. Considering the above, the aim of this paper is to achieve a systematic insight into the evolution of the smart city concept, that is, to see the peculiarities of its conceptualization, key dimensions and indicators, as well as the relationship to similar concepts.

Starting from the global importance of the October Revolution as a historical event, as well as the complexity of social relations in such circumstances, the objective of this paper is to look as thoroughly as possible into the correlations between the Revolution itself and social circumstances that preceded it. The paper interprets historical data and examines the main arguments within theories of revolutions. The focus is on structural factors and the analysis presented by Theda Skocpol, with an additional emphasis on the role of the proletariat. The basic thesis is that one of the key conditions is the existence of branched networking of the peasant communes and workers' associations, with sufficiently strong connections within the classes. That is, discontent with the economic situation and the weakening of the central government would not in themselves lead to revolutionary events, just as joint activities of the proletariat and the leaders of opposition parties should not be neglected.