Articles

This article is devoted to the study of the attitude of the inhabitants of Bulgaria and Hungary to Russia and Russian politics after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and in the context of Russian-Ukrainian confl ict relations. The authors of the article note that today in the Bulgarian and Hungarian societies there is a split of public opinion into Pro-Western and Pro-Russian camps. Using the method of regression analysis, the authors demonstrate that such a split has its own specifi cs in both countries. It is most signifi cantly manifested in the political life of Bulgaria, where the division East / West structures the party and political system of the country. The article highlights the geopolitical orientation and support of President Vladimir Putin as the key factors infl uencing the “post-Crimean” attitude of Bulgarians and Hungarians to Russia.

This article analyzes the phenomenon of unfriendly attitudes towards the United States — attitudes which are today defi ned as “anti-Americanism.” The immediate object of the study is numerous issue-related discussions in the Russian Internet space in which the participants express this or that understanding of American actions towards Russia and present and explain their subjective assessments of these actions. The article draws attention to the narrowing of the subject fi eld of anti- Americanism; it is noted that the latter today focuses on crisis-level international processes and events related to the interests of the two countries and the contradictions of these interests in the fi eld of bilateral relations in their most important areas: the confrontation in Syria and NATO’s approach to Russian borders, economic and political sanctions, the dramatic events in Ukraine and others. The “reactive” nature of anti-Americanism can be easily traced through a large amount of empirical material fr om the discussions in the Runet space, wh ere outbursts, both transitory and substantial, are associated with specifi c international events that have received wide publicity in the media. In the context of information warfare, the online community, one way or another, reproduces the maxims drawn directly from the media or from other posts that ultimately go back to the same media sources, and very rarely off ers any individual reasoning indicating the presence of a personal message by the authors. The article analyzes the rational and emotional constituent elements of the issue-related posts and identifi es their radical components.

This article examines the nature of the origin and functional principles of socalled fake news — reports that are deliberately false in nature which can create a stir in a society around a non-existent informational case born of the same news source. In combination with viral technologies and mechanisms of distribution in the media and social networks, fake news in modern political campaigns is becoming a dangerous tool for infl uencing the mass consciousness of societies. The main task of fake news in modern political campaigns and processes is the interception of the political agenda, with its subsequent closure to the news feed generated by the fake news itself, as well as the creation of general excitement around the given news story. In some cases, fake news can be used by extremists to create socio-political tensions, provoke panic and raise protest sentiments, which can create signifi cant threats to national security.

This article presents a comparative analysis, using Boolean algebra algorithms, of the prerequisites for color revolutions. The author off ers for verifi cation a hypothesis on the infl uence of four factors — ideological division of the political elite; unity of the opposition; participation in the political process of forces external to the political system; and support of the population — on the outcome of the color revolutions. Based on the confi gurations of factors obtained, a conclusion is drawn for each country-case of the necessary and suffi cient reasons for the color revolutions. Some of the analyzed scenarios of color revolutions (mainly in former Soviet countries) were realized under the infl uence of all four factors, while other cases — mainly events in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East — were caused by combinations of two or three factors. A necessary but not suffi cient reason for the emergence of color revolutions is “support of the population.” In combination with other causes, it forms two compositions of factors that are suffi cient for the emergence of a color revolution. The first is a combination of the factors “support of the population” and “ideological division of the political elite”; this is suffi cient even in the absence of “support from outside” and “unity of the opposition.” Secondly, a combination of the factors “support of the population,” “support from the outside” and “unity of the opposition” is suffi cient even in the absence of the “ideological division of political elites.”

The purpose of the article is to consider the theoretical problems of coexistence and interaction of the culture of the titular ethnic group and the cultures of ethnic minorities in the national state. To this purpose the author analyzes the phenomenon of the national state in a historical aspect, uses sociological data, and also analyzes international treaties, analyzes various points of view of scientists. It is stated that the common civil (political) culture in the national state (national culture) has a supra-ethnic character and does not express the interests of any particular ethnic group, including the titular one, at the same time it replaces ethnic cultures, calling into question their full development. A number of arguments are presented in support of the existence and domination of the national culture. It is argued that the national state inevitably protects certain concepts of the good, but this should not lead to anyone’s discrimination. The author concludes that the presence of a national morally colored policy can paradoxically be combined with liberalism, in particular, if such a policy is objectively necessary for ensuring rights and freedoms. As for ethnic cultures, the author sees the fair rules of their interaction in ensuring that each of them, through deliberative procedures, can infl uence the changing national identity.

The author examines the political-philosophical and sociological aspects of the formatting of violence in international relations (IR). The study reactualizes concepts aimed at the advancement of the world community toward social justice and the absence of war based on the optimization of political and legal regulation of IR. The analysis connects the teleology of “social justice” with the functional and systemic approaches to the hierarchy of regulators of violence, which theoretically substantiates the prospects of international “pacifi cation.” The activation of the problem of progress towards social justice was stimulated in international-political theory both by the memory of the world wars and the Cold War and by modern changes in social reality — the turbulence of world politics. Such a hierarchy is an indispensable condition for overcoming the imbalances that arise in the anarchistic variety of regulators; it orders the subordination of regulatory complexes (formats) that determine the regulation of international relations.

This article addresses the issue of defi ning the determinants of electoral diff erentiation over the territory of a large city, with he city of Donetsk and the elections held in it from 1991 to 2012 used as the example. The characteristics of the electoral geography of a large city are described in detail, and the issues of their “causes” as well as markers of detected determinants are discussed. The following methods of mathematical statistics were used: the study of voting results and their comparison with socio-demographic indicators (especially with population census results) using the Pearson correlation coeffi cient; the determination coeffi cient; variance analysis ; and multiple regression analysis. The study maintains that there were two main determinants of the electoral geography of Donetsk: 1) a more signifi cant “Center — Periphery”; and 2) a less signifi cant “East — West.” In authentic elections these determinants have explained up to 99% of the variations in the main electoral indicators in the districts of the city. The demographic markers of these two determinants were the proportion of people with higher education and the ethnic composition of the population. Falsifi cation of election results causes a signifi cant decrease in the statistical reliability of the identifi ed links.

This article presents an analysis of the main contradictions in U.S. — European Union relations in the area of defense policy during the presidency of Donald Trump. The author examines the principal steps taken by the EU towards the formation of “strategic autonomy” in the military sphere and indicates the directions of the further development of an independent EU defense potential. The most important defense projects implemented by the EU independent of NATO are also considered. Particular attention is paid to existing disagreements between the parties on NATO funding. Questions related to the ongoing intra-EU discussions about the possible creation of its own army are likewise analyzed. This study allows us to identify, problematize and characterize the key features of the current stage of relations between the United States and the European Union in defense policy. The author concludes that despite attempts to create its own defense potential, the EU today is not able to off er a full-fl edged alternative to the existing system led by NATO. However, the actions and rhetoric of the American administration could push the Europeans to more decisive action.