Articles

In this article the author attempts to determine the place and role of Buddhism in the process of building a regional political order in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by identifying key characteristics that refl ect the specifi cs of the East Asian region. Contrary to the conventional belief of the universality of state and legal institutions — which, according to Francis Fukuyama’s prediction, was to take place with “all human societies” — the region under study demonstrated its own value-ideological attitudes. Buddhism was never perceived by the people of East Asia exclusively from a religious, sacral position. It was a way of thinking and living that undoubtedly fi gured in the development of state institutions as well. Although in a closer study of the principles of power, place, and the role of the head of state and his relationship with the Sangha diff ered in the tradition of Hinayana (South-East Asia) and Mahayana (North-East Asia), the author provides a set of characteristics typical of any existing current in Buddhism which played a decisive role in the question of its infl uence on the regional political order. An important feature of the region was the presence of predominantly nationstates, which meant that religion played a signifi cant role in forming the identity of the subjects of each state, who felt themselves guardians of ancient traditions, culture and language. Buddhism allowed the peoples of the region to be perceived as part of a whole, and above all, by these peoples themselves — a concept that Japan took advantage of by declaring an ambitious project to create a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Playing on cultural and spiritual contradictions and the opposition of “European” to “Asian,” the Japanese managed to achieve signifi cant success in implementing this project in a short period of time, which was greatly facilitated by Buddhism itself and its most active minions both in Japan and on the continent.

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.

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?”

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 dynamic change in the realities of the modern world has led to, among other things, the transformation of the political resource of the mass media. The mass media has a much greater infl uence on the political process today than it did at the end of the last century. Major changes have taken place both in the functioning of the press and in the discourse in which it is customary to consider it. In this regard, this article is devoted to the analysis of terms that have become quite popular and in demand in a short time, despite the fact that they are relatively new to the categorical corpus of political communication studies. Having studied the content of the most frequently cited works in the “Science Index” system (RSCI: Russian Science Citation Index) that touch on these subjects, the author identifi es the main meanings attached to the concepts of “post-truth” and “ fake”; identifi es similarities and diff erences between disinformation and misinformation, verifi cation and factchecking; and formulates specifi c ways to counter the manipulative infl uence of the mass media on the audience.

Social networks are an environment that refl ects the social practices of youth. From the situational activity of each network group, large clusters are formed which accumulate attitudes of the corresponding layer of young people. This study focuses on regional groups of the social network VKontakte in the city of Tomsk. Data collection and visualization create a methodology for mapping this information space (“community detection”) that is relevant in network analysis. The presence of two socially diff erentiating strategies of behavior among the youth of Tomsk were substantiated by the study. They feature diff erent everyday practices, values, reference groups and information sources, and self-stigmatization systems. “Low” sociocultural practices correspond to a social group that can be described as a “group without a future,” with a negative identity. The practices of another social group, aimed at obtaining higher education and building a career, diff er radically from those of the former. Its representatives are guided by foreign sources, organizations and models. Signifi cant attention in the study is given over to issues of methodology, the mapping process and the interpretation of research results.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the directions and possibilities of using Internet technologies in the implementation of the state youth policy of Russia. The author notes that information technologies and network forms of communication form fundamentally new models of socialization and, as a result, expand the range of possible forms of political participation of young people. In this regard, it is important that youth policy is implemented taking into account current socio-political and cultural trends, as well as the opportunities off ered by modern information and communication technologies. Special attention is paid to the use of Internet technologies to solve information and communication problems of youth policy, as well as to ensure the process of civil and Patriotic education of young people.

This article is devoted to the study of the impact of socio-demographic factors such as gender, age and level of education on the process of forming an image of an ideal president. Examining part of a study of the ideal presidential image conducted by the Political Sociology and Psychology Program in Moscow State University’s Political Science Department, the author identifi es and analyzes the universal and unique personal and professional characteristics in the mass consciousness of Russian citizens from diff erent social categories. The results of the study lead to certain conclusions concerning the integrity and organicity of the ideal president’s image. In the opinion of young people, the political and professional qualities that a head of state should possess were largely infl uenced by relatively new, “rational-secular” values that were introduced into the political system of the state during the period of recovery after the collapse of the USSR. Moreover, despite the quite successful “resocialization” that representatives of the older generation went through, that generation’s view on the image of the exemplary head of state still appears more conservative in comparison with the “eff ective manager” that the younger generation of citizens imagines of the president.