Articles

The activity of private military companies is a distinctive feature of military conflicts of the 21st century. These structures, whose services are used by the US and other actors in international relations, are becoming an effective tool for implementing foreign policy, as well as an integral part of the latest set of measures used during the implementation of police operations.
The relevance of the study of the problem is connected with the need to develop tools and methods to counter the activities of private military companies to prevent the emergence of new challenges and threats to the national security of states. The paper analyzes the activities of private military companies as one of the constituent forms of conducting police operations, reveals the models and specifics of the participation of these organizations in international police operations, which makes it possible to expand approaches to the consideration of existing issues.

The article is devoted to implementation of the USA such as the instrument of foreign policy as sanctions against Venezuela during current political and economic crisis in Venezuela. The Author analyzes in details objectives of sanctions and their types’ classification. The issue about legitimacy of sanctions is a serious problem in international relations. Complex US sanctions program against Venezuela in the period from 2014 to 2021 is examined in the article. Restrictive measures implemented by the USA are divided on individual and sectoral. Real limitations include: the prohibition of the entry into the USA of certain individuals associated with the regime of the President N. Maduro regime; freezing financial assets and property of individuals and entities associated with Venezuelan Government; the prohibition to purchase national debts and securities of Venezuela, transactions related to any dealings in digital currency of Venezuela by American citizens; termination of business relationship with Venezuelan entities of oil and gas sector and gold-mining sector. The author concludes that US large-scale sanction policy led to aggravate political and economic situation within Latin American State, exacerbate already difficult humanitarian situation in Venezuela. However US establishment couldn’t reach its primary goal — overthrow N. Maduro’s regime and coming to power pro-American government.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the structure, models and actors of transnational lobbying, not a new but still insufficiently studied political phenomenon. The development of transnational lobbying is caused by globalization, rising role of international business and non-governmental organizations, hybridization of traditional diplomacy, decision-making process becoming more complex both on national and international levels. On concrete examples four models of transnational lobbying are analyzed in the article: supranational lobbying, which includes the influence of interest groups in international organizations and international unions; diplomatic lobbying based on the influence of interest groups on foreign policies of its own states; foreign lobbying, when organized groups registered in separate jurisdictions, properties of authorities of other sovereign states; ethnic lobbying built on the influence of organized ethnic groups representing the interests of the diaspora living in a particular country, as well as the interests of states with which diasporas preserve ties. Undertaken analysis shows that study of decision making on national and international levels should include the factor of transnational lobbying. It became an integral part of political process of the international system as well as separate states.

The modern information society that is based upon digital integrated communications was transformed in recent years by current global political and economic trends into the central element the system of the globalization that provides for its preservation as an important factor at least at the level of philosophical and civilizational identity and perspective. But informational society provides for development of globalization at the practical level by creating conditions for stable functioning of the critical branches of global economy (global finances) and spheres of social development (socio-cultural communications). But the informational society is itself the object of pressure from within and outside that is a product of contradictions emerged as the result of system’s development as well as the result of competition of the major global and sub-global players. Under the conditions of the emerging crisis of globalization these trends convert the information society into the major element of the interstate competition but not only on the level of propaganda but also in the spheres that directly affect the major elements of the development of the post-global architecture of the world. The major issue in this regard is the prognosis of the major directions of development of the global informational society and clarification of the major point of localized bifurcation in its development but what is most important — is the answer to the question whether the preservation of the integrated information society as a global and post-spacial phenomenon is possible in principle.

The political protests that took place in the Republic of Belarus in 2020 once again brought to the fore a number of issues related to political communication in a network society and the information sovereignty of the nation state. In this paper, on the basis of mathematical and political analysis, the dynamics of the processes under study is considered, taking into account the influence from the external environment on the network subsystem of political communication. As part of the study, methodological tools were tested for analyzing the political role of social media. A combination of methods of political and social analysis, content analysis of social networks (for registration and monitoring of protest activity) and mathematical modeling methods based on nonlinear dynamics were used. The author uses a model of social activity developed by the authors, based on diffusion equations (Langevin equations, in particular), reflecting the information and communication interactions of individuals in society on the example of the Republic of Belarus. One of the main parameters of the model is the coefficient of social activity, the change of which can be indicative from the point of view of analyzing the state of society in the context of ongoing social conflicts. The simulation results are compared with real data of protest activity (based on data in social networks) in Belarus in 2020.

The article presents the results of an applied political research devoted to the implementation of the manipulative effect of search engines (SEME) during the election campaign in 2021 in Russia. SEME is a technology for influencing a wide audience, aimed at transforming behavioral effects and shaping public opinion through changes in the issuance of digital search engines. The order of issue, as well as the tone of the results, can significantly influence the attitude of undecided users and their subsequent electoral choice. According to the results of the study, a number of manipulations in the nature of search results were recorded, associated with an increase in negative coverage of the electoral process, election results and the state of the party system, achieved through the active dissemination of materials from foreign information resources.

The article presents the results of a study of the political and psychologica characteristics of youth political leaders as a special group in the structure of the modern Russian political class. The research sample includes more than 60 subjects corresponding to the category of ‘youth political leader’ by age and by the specifics of their career trajectory (having experience of participating in youth projects before “entering” the political class). The variability of the values of the studied features made it possible to draw conclusions about the typical characteristics of youth political leadership in modern Russia as a special phenomenon providing for the normativity of certain ideas and attitudes related to the subject’s attitude to politics, the current public agenda and the perception of their place and role in the political system. Thus, as a result of the study, a collective political and psychological profile of youth political leaders as a specific social group has been compiled.

The article focuses on the process of forming the frame of Kaliningrad region in local, Russian and foreign media. The goal was to determine the features of regional construct at different positioning levels. As a result of the frame analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of the positioning of the exclave were identified.
The author notes from the point of view of internal political framing a dangerous situation, characterized by the formation of a centrifugal tendency in regional media. In the Russian media, a special role is assigned to the federal center, which is able to protect the Kaliningrad region from possible aggression. In turn, foreign media outlets note the colossal development of the military industry in the region, which puts in the frame a high degree of militarization. The results of the study made it possible not only to theoretically generalize the features of the created constructs, but also to give recommendations to the authorities of the regional and federal levels in order to correct errors in the Kaliningrad region’s positioning strategy.

The article presents the results of a study of the communicative image of two constituent entities of the Russian Federation (Moscow and Primorsky Krai), as well as the images of their heads in the mass consciousness of residents. The results were obtained in the course of an analysis of federal and regional media, as well as a survey of citizens. The communicative image of each region was described according to the developed model by the following indicators: improving the living environment, organizing points of attraction for citizens, infrastructure; attractiveness for investments, large companies, brands; the strategic importance of the region for the State; adequate availability of jobs and employment. The same indicators were used as the basis for the developed questionnaire.
The study revealed that the subject’s communicative image is not always a key factor in the perception of its head. In the case when the communicative image of the region is built in relation to the leader, the latter experiences his positive influence, while the negative aspects of the leader’s perception do not affect the image of the region (Moscow case). In the case when the policy of forming the communicative image of the subject and its leader are not connected with each other, the regional factor practically has no effect, and the negative aspects of the leader’s perception reduce the level of attractiveness of the image of the region (the case of Primorsky Krai).

Contemporary public administration systems in Europe, including those in countries with a unitary form of government, have undergone significant changes over the past forty years. The general trend towards decentralization affects all spheres of society, from the environment and the quality of governance to economic growth and the well-being of citizens. In the countries of the European Union, decentralization takes various forms, in some cases contributing to the efficiency of the public sector, democratization and political stability, but at the same time creating serious problems in the way of reform and ensuring equal access of citizens to social benefits.
Political decentralization in unitary states is the result of complex political processes within these countries. Unitary states today are placed in such conditions when the central authorities are forced to conduct a political dialogue with regional authorities and make all sorts of compromises in order not only to prevent conflicts, but also to avoid the possible collapse of the country. The result of this dialogue is the partial transfer of some powers to the regions, which can transfer the process of decentralization of unitary states into the category of federalization and lead to a change in the form of statehood and the general political landscape when it comes to Europe as a whole.