Articles

The article presents an analysis of the role played by the Conference on Interaction and Confi dence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), an international forum aimed at strengthening cooperation in ensuring peace, security and stability in contemporary international relations. The author provides a detailed analysis of the background, the history of this dialogue platform, its main achievements and problems of development at the present stage. The author concludes that, although the CICA is a unique regional forum in the fi eld of security in Asia, the results of its activity are rather modest. The forum indeed is not a full-fl edged regional supranational organization and its decisions are not binding on member states. Participation in the CICA dialogue is voluntary, and decisions are made on the basis of consensus. In many ways, the slow pace in the development of the Conference is due to the presence of a large number of contradictions between its participants. However, despite all the limitations, CICA has become part of the modern system of regional and global multilateral institutions, a real factor in international relations. The organization developed a consolidated vision of the member states on key security issues in the region and in the world, hand in hand with some practical steps. The Conference adopted specifi c action plans and concepts in order to introduce confi dence-building measures in diff erent spheres of action, such as the military-political, economic, environmental and humanitarian, hand in hand with the broader realm of new challenges and threats.

The article attempts to provide a systematic analysis of the phenomenon of dogmatic thinking explaining its signifi cance for political and psychological research. The publication contains four relatively independent sections. First, the author discusses the dogma and dogmatic thinking concepts, their content, meanings, and functions. Dogmas have integrative properties and are considered as a factor of socialization, able to form a systemic model of the world in mass consciousness. The second part of the article deals with the “law of context,” the psychological mechanisms of contextualization, decontextualization, refl ection, and their importance in understanding political problems. The third part develops the thesis that dogmas can be seen as the dominant contextual system, a building block for the formation of mental matrices and the main paradigm of political thinking. Finally, the last part investigates the essence of dogma as the basis of political mentality. The author concludes refl ecting on the heuristic potential of the dogmatic principle in the study of global mental-political systems.

The article presents an analysis of the protest potential of self-organization among citizens in the context of the emergence of new social and technological opportunities provided by modern media structures and institutions. The analysis of the potential for protest of Russian citizens rests on the hypothesis that various network-based communication methods, hand in hand with specifi c internal and external factors, can result in a “gathering” and “conversion” of the public energy into virtual or real protest potential. Based on the case studies of public protests against the unifi cation of the Nenets Autonomous district with the Arkhangelsk region, local actions against the development of Shikhan Kushtau and a series of online rallies as new forms of civil activism, the authors partially confi rm their hypothesis. More broadly, the article analyses the existence of a “communication gap” between the government and society, the shift of the “energy” of the protest potential in Russian society to new online platforms. Finally, the authors refl ect on the general problem of identifying and solving a number of hidden “social issues” that can constitute the bedrock of online protests in the future. The methodological basis of the research relies on conceptual provisions developed within the framework of the theory of communication by C. Shirky, A.I. Solovyov, M.N. Grachev, and M.D. Rich. In particular, the theoretical framework provides tools to interpret causes, mechanisms, and consequences of network-based involvement of citizens in protest actions of various types and levels.

The article provides an analysis of the fundamental foundations of the anti- Russian discourse in the European Union, suggesting possible explanations for its escalation in contemporary European politics, in both the academic and expert community and in the mass media. The author suggests that the anti-Russian discourse in the EU should not be viewed as a series of random coincidences and not even as a coordinated one-time campaign, but rather as a part of an integral geopolitical strategy. This strategy has an impact on the social space (informational, ideological, semantic), within which the anti-Russian discourse is one of the tools of the European Union and NATO expansion to the East, closer to the borders of the Russian Federation. One of the most important reasons for the constant anti- Russian rhetoric is associated with European Union’s problems in achieving its own “strategic autonomy,” i.e. a unifi ed security and defense policy. The growth of European Russophobia is also associated with the desire to gain competitive advantages in the growing economic rivalry on the world stage. Furthermore, the incessant attacks on Russia are rooted in the erosion of the common European identity, the loss of the attractiveness of European values, as they are understood in the modern establishment of the European Union. Finally, the scope of the anti-Russian rhetoric is explained by the diffi culties experienced by the so-called “European solidarity,” the internal cohesion of the European Union as an integral entity.

The dying away of the world of the Modern in today’s Western countries and the triumph in them of postmodern principles are in fact the main source of the weakness of European civilization., generating advancing trends of Countermodernism and archaism. This variant of European civilization is demonstrating genuine powerlessness in the protection of its basic values. But that does not mean that this historical tendency should be abandoned in favor of other mythical paths of development that run counter to the Countermodern and barbarization. It only means that it is necessary to look for and off er a diff erent version of Modernism — an altermodern or a supermodern — that is able to bring new life to European civilization, fi ll it with a new reading and feeling of basic European values that can give progress a new impetus, making it strong enough to withstand not only the forceful but also the semantic challenge of the forces that have adopted post-terorism today.

The article deals with the main features of the development of state and church relations in modern Russia, discussions about the current model of state and church relations in our country. It is concluded that modern society has worked out a balance in the communication of secular and spiritual power, based on dialogue and cooperation, which is the most important guarantee of social and political stability and the provision of proper conditions for state building. It is emphasized that the established model of state and church relations in modern Russia is cooperative, within which the state and the church are treated as equal partners.

This article analyzes the dynamics of the development of Catholic political doctrine. The author considers the features of its periodization and proposes to classify the key periods of the formation of the political doctrine of the Catholic Church based on its substantive evolution. Describing the specifi cs of each stage, the author demonstrates that the development of Catholic political doctrine is a consistent process of elaborating and codifying the position of the Catholic Church regarding key issues of socio-political and economic organization.

This article presents an analysis of the interaction and cooperation of diff erent states in the Arctic region. The author examines the relationship between polar changes and the increase in geopolitical and geo-economic importance of the Arctic and, as a consequence, the increased interest in the region. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the clash of interests of diff erent states is a clash of diff erent environmental, economic and geopolitical approaches. The latter leads to complications in the search for common interests and the construction of models for their coordination in order to develop mutually benefi cial cooperation and minimize the risks of confl ict situations in this part of the world. The methodological basis of the research consists of analysis and synthesis, description and explanation, the dialectical approach, systematic and comparative analysis, and forecasting. The main conclusion of the study is that climate change and energy resources in the region are leading to increased geopolitical, economic and environmental activity, and as a consequence, closer cooperation in the economic, political and environmental spheres is likely to continue in the future to support the domestic economy and the local environment.

This article analyzes Soviet and Japanese ideas of the phenomenon of buff er statehood. Russia (and later the USSR) and Japan were the main players in the international arena of northeast Asia in the fi rst half of the 20th century, and it is these countries which built up a chain of buff er states that were designed, on the one hand, to ensure their presence in the region and, on the other hand, to protect them from potential military threats. For Soviet Russia, the Far Eastern Republic, which existed in 1920–1922 with capitals in Verkhneudinsk (currently Ulan-Ude) and Chita, acted as an eff ective tool that successfully served these ends in the majority of the territory of the modern Far Eastern Federal District. For Japan, attempts to form a buff er state in the territory of Siberia remained at the planning level, while the policy for the occupied regions of northeast China proved to be more successful. The occupation of Manchuria and the creation of the “ideal state” of Manchukuo, the formation of buff er autonomies in 1935–1937 on the territory of northern and eastern China, and consolidation of the buff er states n 1940 into the alternative “Republic of China” allowed the Japanese to work out in practice a model of military and economic presence which was then extended to other Asian regions that were in their zone of occupation.