Articles

The article examines the Free Syrian Army, one of the largest Syrian insurgent group that takes part in armed confl ict against Bashar al-Assad’s government. The article reveals how the nature and characteristics of this insurgent group aff ected its development during the Syria Civil War. The fi rst part of the article provides a general background of the group and its principles. The following part sketches out the theoretical framework providing the necessary anchor for the main hypothesis explored in the article, namely that the nature and character of the insurgent group determine its subsequent evolution. Starting from the assumption that there are three diff erent types of insurgent groups: political, religious and ethnic, the article focuses on the diff erences between the creation of ethnic and non-ethnic groups and defi nes how the nature of the group aff ects the development of the Free Syrian Army. Furthermore, the article provides an analysis of how, between 2012 and 2018, this insurgent group was able to manage and control its territory, develop its military potential and infl uence the numbers of its members. Finally, the Free Syrian Army is compared with another insurgent group, the 19th of April Movement (M- 19), active in Colombia during 1970s–1990s. Through this lens, the article argues that by looking at the nature of an insurgent group, it can be possible to predict its capacity and chances of success.

Great powers can play a central role in the process of regional integration, as a driving force of the integration, a provider of international public goods, a rule-maker, an initiator of regional mechanisms and as the founder of specifi c regional organizations. Russia and China are playing such a central role in the integration process in Eurasia through a selective use of opportunities provided by the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Belt and Road Initiative. Where the EAEU contributes to an increase in trade volume between its members, the SCO ensures a safe and stable external environment, and the Belt and Road Initiative is primarily focused on infrastructure development. Russia remains the driving force of post-Soviet integration, especially in the security sphere. The trans-regional nature of Russia allows it to borrow and process the experience and economic resources of both Europe and Asia, bringing together these two continents. At the same time, Russia is the initiator of integration projects and the rule-maker. China seeks to strengthen its role as an initiator and rule-maker of regional integration. Cooperating with partners and free-riders, it is ready to take on the role of a provider of global public goods.

The article attempts to make a conceptual interpretation of the hybrid war phenomenon integrating it in the broader fi eld of political science. The authors consistently separate scientifi c and non-scientifi c interpretations of the phenomenon, define various disciplinary frameworks for its interpretation and analyze contemporary literature on the topic. Based on the historical and comparative analysis of diff erent cases of hybrid war through the lens of discourse analysis, the article provides a defi nition of the notion putting it in relationship with concepts of conventional war, smart power, “legal” and “political war.” As a result, hybrid war is defi ned as a combination of concrete military action and other tools able to infl uence political institutions, regimes and processes. Thus, hybrid war as a political phenomenon is part of the (geo)political strategy of an actor and consequently a conscious and goal-oriented action. Furthermore, the article notes that taking into consideration that communication is a system forming process in modern politics, the interpretation of hybrid warfare must look at the role of information and communication as key components of the concept. In fact, it is exactly the domination over the realm of information which determines the specifi cs of the modern confl ict as it appears more and more important not the victory as such, but rather how it is communicated and presented in the information fi eld. In turn, the infl uence on information processes is carried out through political technologies and refl ection management.

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.

This article presents an analysis of political processes in the post-Soviet space from the 1990s to the fi rst half of the 2010s through the prism of the foreign policy doctrines of Russia and the United States. For Russia, the region of “near abroad” is a zone of vital interests and priorities. At the same time, the basis of the Russian foreign policy in the CIS space in the post-Soviet period is the goal of political and economic reintegration of the region. The reintegration eff orts of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet space are an important component of the course towards strengthening Russia’s position in the world as one of the global centers capable of implementing an independent foreign policy. For the United States, the most important task in the region is countering the integration eff orts of Russia, which, in turn, is viewed in the context of preventing the formation of a political and economic pole in Eurasia that could undermine American global leadership. Both Russian and American approaches to politics in the post-Soviet space are closely linked with their understanding of European and Eurasian integration projects as well as the principles of building a common European security system. The revitalization of Russia in the international arena and the consistent development of the Eurasian integration project led to an aggravation of the Russian-American confrontation in the region, a natural consequence and manifestation of which was the Ukraine crisis.

This article examines the increasing infl uence of real practices of civic activism in online communities on the specifi cs of incorporating civic activists’ projects into the political agenda. The institutionalization of network civic activism in recent years 8 has made it possible to implement network practices into political reality, moving them to a new level of infl uence thanks to the construction of numerous inclusive horizontal connections. The fact is that global changes in the post-information society have contributed to a steady “deliverance” from communications monopolies, creating a delicate balance of state interests and the interests of society and the individual. The fi rst part of the article shows that current network communities are not a shapeless mass but clearly structured by horizontal non-hierarchical ties. The information and communication abundance of today allows actors to eff ectively apply individual and collective actions in implementing political and non-political activities. According to the author, civic activity is capable of forming important vectors of socio-political development; grass-roots mobilization of citizens is a coordinating tool of civil society and is contributing to the slow transformation of the political system in Russia.

The leading states of the modern world declare the creation and implementation of large-scale political projects aimed at changing certain areas of world politics in accordance with their economic, social, military-strategic and socio-cultural interests. In 2014, Vladimir Putin outlined the contours of the “great project” of the Russian state-civilization in his address to the Federal Assembly. In the same year, Barack Obama, speaking from the United Nations rostrum, laid out the general characteristics of the new American civilizational project. In 2016, Martin Schultz formulated the concept of an updated “Europe” civilizational project. From 2017 to 2019 Latin American, Asian and African political leaders presented their own political projects at the regional and global levels. Conceptualization of such projects is successfully carried out in modern social sciences and humanities studies. This takes place on transcontinental, civilizational, geopolitical, ideological and military-strategic grounds. At the same time, the terminological apparatus of the last four has been developed in detail and has passed the necessary testing in modern social sciences and humanities studies. That notwithstanding, the transcontinental basis for the identifi cation of large-scale political projects has not received proper conceptualization. This article presents the author’s formulation of the concept of “transcontinental political project,” defi ned by its essential characteristics, the mechanisms of formation of such projects and the diff erences between a transcontinental political project and civilizational and global projects.

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.

This essay’s part contains two relatively independent sections. At the beginning of the text, the authors discuss the mental and civilizational mission of Christianity in England, in particular the Catholic and Celtic churches. The mental and civilizational foundations, as well as the distinctive statehood of the future British nation, were laid in the process of their multidimensional interaction. The second section describes the stages of the transition from impersonal, undogmatic, autochthonous polymentality to the formation of a subjective, dogmatic, monotheistic mentality among the inhabitants of the British Isles. The fundamental political and psychological result of the Christianization of the British elites was the emergence of new mental properties. First of all, subjective identity as awareness of the exclusivity of one’s potential, and also the ability to political refl ection and to identify oneself with the goal of political activity. The British elite’s uniqueness is due to the peculiarities of the historical development and formation of their subjectivity, which gave rise to a special ruling regime and original political culture.

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.