Articles

A recent round table held at Lomonosov Moscow State University by the Russian Politics Program of the university’s Political Science Department was devoted to the problems of the country’s transition to a course of innovative development. Participants emphasized that in the context of globalization, the country needed to attain new levels of its economic, social and political status to ensure Russia a worthy place in the modern world; innovation can become one of the principal levers for facilitating such a turn of events. In this connection, the main problems and barriers that have hampered innovative development, as well as the goals and objectives of innovation policy and the prospects for creating a national innovation system, were raised at the round table for substantive discussion. In this context, at length, the role and functions of the subjects of innovative development, the corresponding directions of regional policy, and international scientifi c and technical cooperation were defi ned. The participants underscored that innovation activity is not limited to organizational and technological dimensions, but should also enjoy well-grounded political support.

Democracy development in Indonesia is a vivid example of the interaction between democracy and Islam. The specifi city of these relations lies in the fact that the country has the largest Muslim community in the world. From an analysis of modern sources on the interaction of democracy and Islam, one may conclude that there are three distinct lines in Indonesia: radical, moderate and “our own way.” At the state level, Indonesia has maintained a democratic system while trying to modernize it and combine it with the principles of Islam. However, the current situation in the country, caused by the growth of religious confl icts, has led to a sharp decline in its democratic index in 2017 — and the tense situation ahead of the upcoming general parliamentary and presidential elections does not allow for a prediction of a decline in the escalation of internal confl icts in the near future.

A special attitude toward history has always been characteristic of Russia. The country’s rich past, with its multitude of ambiguous events and problematic issues, makes Russian history a platform for discussions not only of the past, but of the present and the future as well. Historical events of various periods are constantly re-examined and updated, becoming tools for solving various issues of the present day.
The October Revolution can be considered one of the most important events in the 20th century history of Russia and the world. The revolution is a kind of eventsymbol. As a watershed, fate-changing occurrence, it is an integral part, irrespective of interpretation, of any offi cial narrative — and is an actively exploited object of public history. But at the same time, the image of October is far from unambiguous and is constantly reinterpreted.
This article is aimed at demonstrating the place of the October Revolution in the symbolic policy of the Russian Federation, revealing the main aspects of the commemoration of the event-symbol and demonstrating the main trends in this policy and the reasons behind them.
According to the author, it is diffi cult to deny that the October symbol is often used by representatives of the country’s political elite for purposes far from those of unbiased scholarly knowledge. One way or another, the symbol of the October Revolution organically fi ts into the concept of a great power, based on the continuity of the history of a great state.

Russia’s October revolution of 1917 was of great importance in the history of the Chinese revolution. It was under the infl uence of the October revolution that the Chinese revolution took the path of socialism. The practice of the Chinese revolution has shown that the vector of socialist modernization designated by the October revolution is consistent with the development needs of Chinese society. Today, China’s development will not stray from this path, for which the Communist party of China fought and fi ghts, despite blood and sacrifi ce. At the same time, the country does not refuse to renew the theory and practice of socialist modernization, which in China is characterized by political, economic, cultural and ideological features. The path of socialism with Chinese specifi cs is the path that the Chinese people embarked on in the practice of reform and openness.

This article is an analysis of the political senses of the Russian World concept at the Russian-Chinese and Russian-Mongolian frontiers. The author proceeds from the thesis that the Russian World is a key domestic political category in Russia and can be used to describe and interpret both the Russian diasporas and systems of signs-symbols that have a correlation with the Russian or Soviet presence abroad. The text deals with three main components of the Russian World: ideology of the Russian presence, Russian orthodoxy and the Russian language. The author points out that each of the components can have multiple meanings. On each frontier, each component has at least three connotations. These connotations defi ne the diversity of the Russian World, focusing on the category of ‘world’ as presupposing multiplicity. Proceeding from this, an attempt is made to dispute the amorphousness ascribed by Western Russianists to the Russian World concept. In the author’s opinion, diversity of religious confessions and its hybrid nature are the key characteristics of the Russian World across the entire expanse of the Asian frontier of Russia.

This article analyzes theoretical approaches in energy security studies within the liberal paradigm of international relations theory. The author notes that the current content of various theoretical trends in the liberal/neoliberal paradigm of the Anglo-Saxon school gives a new understanding of energy security and has a number of advantages relative to the realistic school of international relations analysis.
In the liberal approach, three aspects can be identifi ed that determine the analysis of energy security: the importance and impact of international energy markets in determining the demand, supply, price and stability of hydrocarbon resources; analysis of energy security in terms of development and decision-making; and the impact of international institutions on international security. The article emphasizes that representatives of liberal policy directions consider the free energy market one of the key conditions for maintaining stable and sustainable relations between exporting and importing countries. At the same time, neo-liberal approaches limit perceptions of the causes of resource confl icts, and liberal market relations lead to corruption in states where governance is weak, sustainable democratic institutions are lacking, and natural resources are the only source of income.

This article discusses the main criteria and attributes of the modern information society. In the fi rst part of the article the author shows that the dynamics of social changes increase after the acceleration of technological progress; in the most dynamically developing information societies, moreover, characteristic phases of conceptualization, institutionalization and implementation can be identifi ed. We are on the threshold of an innovation avalanche, the author continues, which will increasingly infl uence the political process, public administration and socio-political activities. In this connection, seven major megatrends and technological drivers will set the further direction of the development of the information society and the fourth industrial revolution. On the one hand, these megatrends still seem abstract and “piecemeal.” On the other hand, they become the basis for practical applications and developments, attracting signifi cant investments. For example, once such innovations as photography, the telephone, television were also exclusive and accessible to a limited number of people; but eventually the cheapening of technologies contributed to their ubiquitous and large-scale distribution. The author comes to the conclusion that the concept of the information society in part brings about a kind of political program that aff ects both national states and the entire world community.