Tiltai

The Tėviškė (Homeland) Society for Lithuania’s cultural relations with compatriots abroad was set up in Soviet Lithuania in 1976 on the basis of previous analogous institutions. Through the society, attempts were made to control the cooperation with emigrant compatriots, disseminate the Soviet propaganda, restrict the spread of objective information, and discredit the right-wing emigration organizations that nurtured the idea of restoration of Lithuania’s independence. The aim of this paper is to review the programme of cultural exchanges with emigrants in the USA, implemented in the Soviet times, by highlighting the musical aspect. The research is based on the Cold War paradigm, the work of historians who analysed the topic, the still unexplored documentation of the Tėviškė Society, and the letters addressed to it and currently stored in the Lithuanian Special Archives. The cultural cooperation programme also included the field of tourism, which was especially useful for governmental institutions wishing to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet Lithuania to foreign visitors. It was partly supervised by the Tėviškė Society. However, this is a subject for a new study and will not be analysed in the present paper.

Human resource management uses social networks to identify new employees. This research investigates if people use social networks to identify employment opportunities and how they improve their networks to get easier and quicker access to information and resources. Researchers worldwide devote their attention to different aspects of identification of new employees via social networks. The authors of the paper have done empirical research based on an online survey with 298 respondents, and the data obtained from the survey has been analysed using various statistical tools. The number of suitable candidates for employment is decreasing and companies need knowledge about the employment seeking process to have an effective and efficient recruiting strategy. This paper studies the information channel on employment possibilities, i.e. social network, and how individuals develop and improve their networks for the employment seeking process. Moreover, the authors analyse how people use social networks in the employment seeking process compared with other channels on possible employment opportunities.

This article presents the concept of China’s sharp power, and features of its formation that support it. The article deals with theoretical interpretations of soft power that are inseparable from the properties of sharp power. Soft power has been a very influential concept in recent decades to describe a country’s ability to influence others by cooperating, persuading and promoting a positive attitude in other states to achieve the desired results. Nevertheless, the concept of power has changed dramatically in recent years, due to shifts in the international system, and no longer fits definitions of the relationship between authoritarian and democratic systems. It is necessary to introduce a new concept of power, in order to expose the new world order posed by China as an emerging normative power. Authoritarian methods of influence can no longer, in principle, be described as soft power. There is a need to introduce a new term for power in academic discourse, in order to conceptualise the influence of authoritarian states on democracies. The article highlights the problem that sharp power can restrict freedom of expression and distort the political environment, by taking advantage of asymmetric levels of freedom between democratic and authoritarian systems. Having identified and clarified the terminological framework, the article presents three components of China’s sharp power, which allows for empirical research into its mechanisms for spreading influence, expanding the country’s interests abroad, and damaging democratic systems.

A fierce national East Prussia-related conflict between Germans and Poles after the First World War basically contrasted with the prewar situation in the province. After the decision taken at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to hold a plebiscite in two governmental districts of this German province on their inhabitants’ political affiliations, the vast population there had to take a test on the basic choice of their political, and simultaneously cultural, orientation. Today, researchers agree that the plebiscite of 1920 caused irreversible damage to the multiethnic area. There is no doubt that the so-called Ostdeutscher Heimatdienst organisation strongly contributed to this. The article raises questions as to what circumstances promoted the establishment of the organisation, who its principal actors were, and how they affected the East Prussian population.

The article is devoted to the new historical and political investigations on the Poland in regard to Lithuania’s admission into European structures during last decades. The Polish state authorities took part at generation of actual political events of independence receiving in Baltic States in memorable 1991 year. As an important part of the background for the States strategic partnership it is possible to admit the collaboration in the developments of economical and industrial units, which reached the high point of its intensity in the middle 1990, having the possibility to use the positive results of free market since January 1, 1997. The important element in the positive process in normalizing relations between Poland and Lithuania was the forthcoming political support to join NATO for all Baltic States from the Polish State side. The Polish support for Lithuania to join NATO as well as EU was consistent, principled, and made non-conjuncture way.