Articles

The purpose of this article is to identify political factors in the institutionalization of the civil service in Russia at the present stage, the problems associated with them and the prospects for overcoming them. The study demonstrates the applicability of institutional theories of public service; the author proposes a model of institutionalization of the civil service (which is examined in the light of recent reform experience in an appendix) and attempts to identify the roots of existing problems, in the end proposing options for their rectifi cation.
This study bears out the assertion that modern dysfunctions of the civil service have been largely determined by a non-optimal institutional choice made in the early 1990s. The design of civil service reforms is carried out by a narrow circle of the politico-bureaucratic elite, which contributes to the long-term preservation of the institutionalization of the civil service in an unfi nished stage. The more time that passes after the beginning of political transition in Russia, the more the dependence on the previous stage of development increases and the incomplete reform of the bureaucracy leads to increasing political and socioeconomic costs. The political factors for a successful continuation of the institutionalization of the civil service are its integration into the strategic course of the country’s president; provision of support for reform among the civil servants themselves; and the implementation of a one-stage reform permitting the attainment of the goal within a single presidential cycle.

This article examines the defi nition of political risk using the example of the Eurasian integration of the Republic of Armenia. The authors analyze the typology of the main political risks and their genesis in the current context, highlighting a wide variety of political risk factors and their subject-object relations. These create certain diffi culties, but at the same time open new opportunities for study. According to the authors, analysis of political risk may be in demand when optimizing Eurasian integration strategy via updated concepts of “multi-speed,” “asymmetric” and “flexible” integration.

In May 2017 a research project on Russian citizens’ perceptions of the former Soviet republics was presented at a round table held by the Department of Sociology and Psychology of Politics of the Faculty of Political Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The three main topics of discussion were: problems of perception of the states of the post-Soviet space; comparative analysis of the images of these countries; and factors that infl uence the formation of images of states in the mass political consciousness. As the discussion showed, the perception of other countries refl ects, fi rst of all, the psychological state of one’s own society: as the positive assessments of one’s own country grow, the assessments of other countries become more positive as well. The study showed a very low awareness of neighboring countries among the respondents. Maximum emotional response among them was elicited by Ukraine and Belarus. Further, in the images of all the post-Soviet countries, a marked contradiction between the positive assessments of the peoples and the negative assessments of the authorities of these countries was observed.

In this second part of their article, the authors attempt to consider what might be called British political personology. Since representatives of the ruling elites played a leading role in the formation and development of a unique British civilization, a politiсo-psychological study of their personal characteristics would seem to have considerable relevance. Yet in British political science, despite the great importance of the role of the Prime Minister and other high offi cials of the state, political personology has not yet developed as such. Nevertheless, the authors consider it possible to identify two main aspects in the study of national political leaders — historical and modern — as well as a number of research trends, including historiographical, biographical, linguistic, literary, and artistic subsets. Most of the analyses identifi ed are devoted to the study of the country's Prime Ministers, who historically occupy a special status in the structure of the British political system. The authors proffer examples of the application of concrete ideas and models in the study of English Prime Ministers.

This article analyzes the role of the infl uence of information media in political confl icts. The author emphasizes that the infl uence of the media and “new media” on these confl icts is signifi cant: any political confl ict, regardless of its scale or the composition of its participant group, is inscribed in a specifi c information context. The struggle for power of the parties to the confl ict is always accompanied by an information war, the conduct of which is impossible without the intermediary and transfer functions of the mass media. The author concludes that in contemporary confl icts, the mass media and “new media” act simultaneously as a special subject: an instrument and a channel for confl ict interaction.

The unblocking of the India-U.S. nuclear deal following President Barack Obama’s offi cial visit to New Delhi in January 2015 paved the way for bringing to fruition earlier nuclear agreements and helped to overcome a temporary cool-down in bilateral relations. This article discusses the pace of India-U.S. nuclear talks and the negotiation positions of all the parties concerned. The author analyzes the prospects of American private companies Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi of entering India’s nuclear market and evaluates potential avenues India might opt for in expanding nuclear cooperation with U.S. allies (Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom) and other states (Argentina, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Namibia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka) in the fi eld of uranium fuel and nuclear power equipment purchases.

This article focuses on the strategy of Indian “soft power” in the South Asian subregion as a key component of the modern geopolitics of New Delhi. The author addressed the understanding of “soft power” from the “rising powers” of Asia, then examines Indian-Chinese relations in the fi eld of “soft power” through the concept of “Chindia.” This neologism signifi es not only the competition between the two powers, but also the development of adjacent zones of Indian and Chinese civilizations, where as a result of intercultural dialogue and exchange there are peculiar geocultural hybrid spaces equally susceptible both to Indian and Chinese infl uence. The author concludes that although India’s “soft power” expansion was a response to China’s successful attempts to involve the countries of South Asia in its orbit of infl uence, India has now begun to apply the updated models of “soft power” on a systematic basis.

This article examines civil society in the context of the world’s global governance. Civil society actors — independent of national governments and having their own supranational associations — can open up new opportunities for the creation of a new model of global governance. The article considers a model of civil society relations with governance structures in integrated associations, on the example of the European Union. The possibility of European civil society providing an alternative form of legitimacy to the European Union’s management structures is also analyzed. The author concludes that the search for solutions to the global problems of mankind makes it necessary to improve existing governance methods and seek new solutions on a planetary scale with the active participation of civil society.

This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the contemporary geopolitical structure of the world and to the contradictions of global governance under the crisis conditions of the existing world order and the transition from centralized to decentralized globalism. Decentralized globalism creates the basis for a new system of international relations that is very different from the former global order of “center-periphery,” in which the superpowers were recognized as global leaders. Currently, we are observing the segmentation of the global space among several competing integration systems, with the great powers and regional powers included in their composition. Since under present conditions the ideas of global multilevel governance and strong supranational structures are becoming less realizable, integrated systems will become the new global centers in a system of integrationconfrontation polycentricity.

The theory of international relations demonstrates the unattainability of absolute security for participants in European and world politics. The juxtaposition of “correct” and “incorrect” approaches to security does not take into account that the very notion of “security” comprises both objective content and subjective meaning. A universal formula for the ultimate solution to the problems in this fi eld does not exist. Insisting on the superiority of “European values” actually renders plans for a common European security community that protects both the EU and Russia from destabilization futile. International security is a continuous process requiring constant dialogue, effort, compliance with treaties and confi dence-building measures.