Articles

This article is devoted to the study of the formation of radical Islamic movements in Central Asia in the post-Soviet period. The authors analyze the factors of radicalization of Islam in the Central Asian region in the late 20th — early 21st centuries using the examples of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), whose activities are currently prohibited by the leadership of the republics. One of the main reasons for the growing infl uence of radical Islamists is the extremely diffi cult socio-economic situation in Central Asia during this period. Despite the “Salafi trend” in the Islamic world, especially among radicals, the Wahhabi leadership of the IMU and the IRPT were unable fi nd support in the eyes of the majority of the population of the post-Soviet republics, and the status quo continues in the region. However, the dominance of Sufi s in the countries of Central Asia and the marginalization of leading Islamic groups does not mean that there are no prerequisites for the development of religious extremism — which could pose a threat to both the security of Russia itself and the allies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

This article presents an empirical study of the collective memory of the Civil War in Russia based on the content of online commentaries. Images of the past are considered as resulting from the competition between mnemonic actors and narratives constructed by them in the public space. Online memory acts as a medium for ideological and political disputes and is encoded by the current media agenda. The structural characteristics of the “red” and “white” narratives of the Civil war are described. A conclusion is drawn as to the symmetrical organization of the opposing versions of the Civil War and the special role of the narrative of “national treason” in the construction of online memory. One of the main obstacles to reconciliation, the author maintains, is the dominance of moral discourse in the judgments of members of the online community.

This article analyzes the theory and practice of using mediation technologies for managing (resolving) modern environmental confl icts. The main characteristics of mediation, the necessary conditions for its application, types of mediation, and the diff erences between environmental mediation and other types of mediation are highlighted. Using various examples of mediation in environmental confl icts in the United States since the 1970s, the author examines the principles of choosing a mediator, the mediator’s role in the confl ict resolution process, the advantages and disadvantages of using mediation from the point of view of various participants in environmental confl icts, the political aspects of using mediation to resolve environmental confl icts and its possibilities and limitations.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of “hybrid wars” and “hybrid threats” in the context of military-political strategies of the USA and through the lens of military, political and informational environment between Russia and the West. The authors note that there is no common approach among foreign military experts to understanding the problem. Some of them view Russia as a state that has created its own “hybrid war” strategy, and assume that “hybrid threats” to sovereign states posed by Moscow are real, while others reject as erroneous the assumption that Russia has created and pursued a “hybrid strategy” in a purposeful way. The authors conclude that, in the absence of a clear and consistent defi nition of these phenomena, the understanding of “hybrid wars” and “hybrid threats” depends on ideological perception of international political processes and experts’ interpretation of relations between Russia and the West.

This article off ers an analysis of “Bourgeois Happiness” and “Molotov,” two novels by Nikolai Pomyalovsky that present an artistic conceptualization of the formation of the consciousnes of the raznochintsy class. The heroes of Pomyalovsky’s novels, Yegor Molotov and Mikhail Cherevanin, personify two strategies for the behavior of representatives of the new class. Molotov integrates into the existing structure of society and comes to creatie a bourgeois “idyll.” Cherevanin refuses to integrate, becomes a pessimist and chooses a path of self-destruction. The search for a mission by both heroes ends in failure. Molotov and Cherevanin do not have faith in their own strength and lack a clear understanding of what to do. But the artistic conceptualization of such searches undertaken by Pomyalovsky had a greater socio-political signifi cance. Pomyalovsky began the work to be completed by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, another well-known writer of the raznochintsy class. And the achievment of Chernyshevsky was that he united the disparate parts of the unformed raznochintsy consciousness in a comprehensive doctrine that he presented in the novel “What Is to Be Done?”

Development of contemporary informational society embraces all the spheres of human social activities. The sphere of military-political interaction traditionally rested beyond the framework of mainstream in the communications system and included a number of specifi c rules, forms and rituals that served as a sort of guarantees from a destabilizing infl uence of propaganda upon foreign policy decision-making process. But the development of the technologies of integrated communications that are based upon the ability for unlimited transformation of a digitalized content together with the potential of instanteneous and nearly simultaneous impact upon the primary audiences, including decision-makers, creates a new model for the infi ltration and mutual infl uence information society and the sphere of international security. Now we witness active diff usion of the social and technological specifi cs of contemporary integrated communications into the areas of foreign policy and military-political interaction. This is an objective trend but in creates serious new challenges. And the results of their implementation are yet to be understood completely. But at this point it is already clear that their infl uence go far beyond classic propaganda and use of informational manipulation technologies in the military confl icts. A new socio-political phenomenon emerges and it has a potential to alter the specifi cs and algorithms of employment of the key institutes of international security.

This article is devoted to the prospect of using collective memory as a resource of soft power. The author notes that the importance of this use of collective memory is associated not only with purposeful social activity, but also with a special sociolinguistic matrix. The article sets out the main political and philosophical ideas that retinterpret the power practices underlying the use of collective memory in soft power strategies. Scaling up to the level of international relationships, collective memory is associated with soft power as one of the eff ective tools for implementing strategies that mitigate the eff ects of overt or covert interstate confl icts. Collective memory as a separate tool of soft power is deployed in various practices of memorial diplomacy, although its use to improve interstate relations and reconciliation of various historical narratives in the world is not exhaustive. The aims, actors and forms of memorial diplomacy are noted by the authors, as are the main scenarios of its implementation: 1) for overcoming the negative and tragic experience of the past; and 2) to update narrative strategies in territories with pronounced narrative inconsistency.

The new state formations of Eurasia at the turn of the millennium were faced with a number of problems, with the periodization of their recent history fi guring prominently among them. Political processes in the newly independent states played an important role in their transition to a market economy and the development of interstate contacts, primarily in foreign policy orientation. In the Republic of Kazakhstan, one of the largest Eurasian states, these problems developed in a particular way as the republic gradually moved from a parliamentary administration to a presidential one. The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has repeatedly published books in which he expresses his views on current changes in the political landscape. In his latest volume, The Age of Independence (2017), Nazarbayev proposed a new concept for the evolution of an independent republic, suggesting that it be viewed as a three-stage modernization. Scholars deemed the appearance of the book “a methodological breakthrough in modern Kazakhstani historical science.” This article examines the fi rst part of the work by comparing the proposed ideological bases of modernization and practical solutions adopted by Nazarbayev in the process of ensuring the sustainable development of independent Kazakhstan. The author of the article, emphasizing that the ideology of modernization helps in understanding the realities of Kazakhstan’s political life, maintains that it is necessary to use alternative methods of historical and political studies.

Analyzing China’s energy security strategy in the framework of its national development goals and the modern system of international relations is extremely important in understanding the future course of international developments. This article presents a comparative analysis of the Chinese and American energy security strategies, an analysis of offi cial Chinese documents in the sphere of strategic planning, as well as an examination of existing forecasts regarding China’s energy system. The facts show that China has a comprehensive vision of its own positioning in the world energy system and the system of international relations in general. In contrast to the ideologically motivated approaches of the dominant power, China off ers cooperative solutions that allow it to reach its national goals and can become the key to a truly balanced multipolarity.

Transnational corporations (TNC) are today increasingly intensifying their infl uence on the shaping of world politics. Their status as non-state actors in international relations makes it possible for them to actively join in the resolution of the most important issues and problems of world politics — functions that were previously left to the competence of nation-states. TNCs sponsor, lend to and invest in national economies, and in some cases manage them directly. Russia hosts both its own TNCs, which consider the Russian Federation their country of origin and home base, as well as representations of foreign transnationals. The activities of these cross-border entities, which have extensive capabilities and resources with which to infl uence the national economy and policy, need special forms and methods of state regulation. In order to eff ectively regulate the activities of TNCs in the political system of Russia, a system of institutions or specialized bodies is required to perform these functions.