Articles

The USSR, created after the Civil War, existed for almost 70 years and collapsed, repeating partially the fate of the Russian Empire. Researchers saw in the “chain” of events of the 20th–21st centuries. The “return” of circumstances similar to the Versailles order. Building power imbalances by ousting individual great powers from the circle of joint strategic decision-makers is again fraught with historical challenges. The purpose of the article is to comprehend the possibility of a “return” on a new “round” of historical challenges in the context of a change in the international order and the cost of overcoming these challenges in the process of geopolitical self-determination of Russia as a great power. The objectives of the article: to identify from the standpoint of historical politics the meanings of “returning” challenges as lessons for explaining the past and present, identifying the contours of the future, to conduct a comparative analysis of the consequences of Versailles and trends in the formation of the modern international order. The comparison revealed the “return” of the Versailles challenge in the form of such a variable as the condition of mass consciousness, capable of fragmenting the national identity of the state, destroying it. What happened to national identity in Russia in 1917 was “returning” at the end of the Cold War in the late USSR. There is a threat of such a “return” in modern Russia.

This article analyses the objectives of the US Indo-Pacific strategy, the logic of its construction, and the impact on the East Asian region from Chinese perspectives. Under the administration of D. Trump relations between the United States and China are characterized by the growth of confrontational moods. The Biden administration inherited the political thinking of the Trump administration and continued to implement the Indo-Pacific strategy. From a theoretical point of view, this strategy is based on realpolitik principles. It was influenced by both the geopolitical theory of sea power and the geographical concept of the Indo-Pacific region by K. Haushofer. At the present time a multi-level theoretical and ideological framework has been developed to justify the implementation of the US Indo-Pacific strategy. Analyzing the practice of its implementation, the author characterizes the role of traditional US allies in the Asia-Pacific region (Japan and South Korea), and also considers the importance of the Taiwan issue. The implementation of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy has led to changes in the situation in East Asia in terms of politics and security.

The article attempts to identify the main directions of the implementation of the new US Indo-Pacific Strategy and consider this strategy from the point of view of three main theories of international relations. The author highlights the key elements and directions for the implementation of the new Indo-Pacific Strategy and reveals its essence from the point of view of the theory of realism, liberalism and constructivism. According to realist theory, the Indo-Pacific Strategy is mainly understood as a “balancing” strategy that offers other states a strategic justification for forming a political-military alliance in order to counter the rising power of China, especially in the field of security. From the point of view of liberalism, the Indo-Pacific Strategy can be viewed as a plan for organizing a new inter-institutional environment that should promote cooperation between the states of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. For constructivism, the concept of the Indo-Pacific is a new “ideographic construct” based on shared values and a shared identity. By the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the United States promotes democratic values, which, if not excludes, then complicates dialogue with most non-democratic countries in the region.

This article is devoted to modern forms and methods of waging trade wars (on the example of the confrontation between the USA and China). Focusing on the trade war as a phenomenon and an important component of modern hybrid wars, the authors of the article reveal the comprehensive deterrents of US to China, including in the scientific, technological, military, political and diplomatic fields, confirming that the trade war unleashed by the Trump administration since 2018 is part of the US hybrid wars against China. The article also analyzes the reasons for the U.S. anti-China policy from macro, meso, and micro perspectives, and concludes by summarizing the phased outcomes and consequences of this trade war, which is still ongoing.

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.