/library/oar/handle/123456789/3339 2025-12-27T06:43:45Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/141783 Title: Small state resilience in a polycrisis : Malta’s role in EU crisis management and democratic stability Authors: Thake, Anne Marie Abstract: The ongoing polycrisis confronting the European Union encompassing migration, security threats, regional instability, and economic strain, has placed significant pressure on the political, legal, and administrative systems of member states. This paper explores Malta’s response to these challenges as a case study of democratic resilience within a small EU member state. Despite its limited size and resources, Malta has demonstrated institutional adaptability while upholding its constitutional commitments, its neutrality clause, during participation in EU crisis management frameworks. The study is guided by two core research questions, namely - How has Malta balanced its national interests and constitutional neutrality with its obligations under EU crisis management frameworks? In what ways has Malta contributed to the stability and resilience of EU governance during periods of polycrisis? By analysing Malta’s strategic role in EU migration policy, border security, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), and broader crisis response initiatives such as cybersecurity and humanitarian aid, the paper demonstrates how small democratic states can actively participate in multilateral crisis governance without compromising their legal autonomy. Malta's experience highlights the institutional flexibility, diplomatic engagement, and policy influence that small states can employ to contribute to EU crisis management. The findings offer broader implications for understanding democratic resilience and the potential of small states in addressing complex, overlapping crises within multilateral frameworks. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/141558 Title: The path forward : reflections on social justice in practice Authors: Zammit, George Vital Abstract: The publication 'll Quddiem b'Dinjità | Forward with Dignity is a compelling and timely contribution to the national conversation on social justice, framed within the lived realities of vulnerable people in Malta. Across more than thirty chapters authored by diverse professionals, this book traces the contours of economic and social exclusion, bringing to the fore an urgent call to reconsider how policy, politics, and citizenship can be reshaped to serve tose who have been left behind.; 'll Quddiem b'Dinjità | Forward with Dignity hija pubblikazzjoni f'waqtha li tagħti kontribut importanti fid-diskors nazzjonali dwar il-ġustizzja soċjali, speċjalment dwar ir-realtajiet ta' nies vulnerabbli f'Malta. F'aktar minn tletin kapitlu, miktuba minn diversi professjonisti, dan il-ktieb jixtarr l-implikazzjonijiet talesklużjoni ekonomika u soċjali, u jġib fuq quddiem is-sejħa urġenti biex nibdlu l-mod ta' kif inħarsu lejn il-politika, it-tmexxija u t-tfassil tagħha biex ħadd ma jibqa' lura. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/141477 Title: Foreword [Secular reflections : on a nation's anomaly] Authors: Zammit, George Vital Abstract: George Orwell had claimed that one of the reasons he writes is the 'historical impulse' which creates 'the desire to see things as they are and find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity. Malta's 60th year anniversary of its Independence from the United Kingdom, presents a timely opportunity to reformulate a critical reflection of who we are as a nation. Are we still a nationless state, as Godfrey Baldacchino probed two years before E. U. accession? Are we a nation of contradictions, in Sartre's sense that we manifest an ineludible tension between individual freedoms and collective responsibility? Are we ambivalent Europeans, as Mitchell (2002) coined it, with an ''ambivalent self-identity that is simultaneously self-aggrandising and self-deprecatory"? 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/141307 Title: The comune versus the state : the Riace model and the contours of migration policy conflict Authors: Zammit, George Vital Abstract: When the mayor of a small village is charged, placed under house arrest, and banned from entering, it may come across as punitive action for maladministration. But this is no ordinary account of a politician caught in abuse of public office. In this Paper, I shed light on the Riace Model, an experience of a little comune in southern Italy, its mayor, and the ensuing tension between central and local government on inward migration. The study is informed by two main driving issues: (1) the collision between the mayor’s vision for the village and the national political line (intergovernmental relations); and the nuanced approach towards migratory settlement (contrasting visions of policy implementation). Whilst it has been recognized internationally, the Riace Model is now challenged by a resenting political establishment, a displaced mayor (the thinker behind it), and an apprehensive community, unclear and unsure about its future. By examining its empirical development, and engaging with contemporary theories of governance and migration, I argue that the Riace Model is a precursor to similar phenomena that are likely to occur in countries where similar tension between centrallocal politics exists. Whilst the state has the power to cause the model to flounder, it cannot extinguish the recognition and appreciation of the international community. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z