COVER STORY: WORLD POLITICS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL TURBULENCE
The aim of this article is analysis of a regional conflict between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Islamic Republic of Iran. In media this conflict is known as “New Cold War” or “Cold war in the Middle East”. It is mentioned that analysts often paint this conflict as a purely religious (Sunni vs Shia). However, in this article the author states that conflict is not purely religious. Article analyses several focal points, like post-Hussein Iraq, proxy wars in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Special attention he paid to Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Saudi Arabia welcomed Trump decision to abandon Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In other words, the conflict cannot be defined in purely religious terms.
The subject of the article is the ability of ethno-federalism to effectively respond to the challenges of modernization. The authors refer to the case of Malaysia, one of the Asian countries that are relatively successful in practicing the principles of ethno-federalism in state administration. The scope of this work is to find out the adaptive capabilities of the Malaysian model of ethno-federalism to changing conditions and the intensity of political processes. We show the general institutional, historical, ethnopolitical, and social reasons for the inertial resistance to the growing tendencies to change the existing system of relations between the Federation center and the regions. We paid significant attention to the fundamental connection of the regime characteristics with the limitation of federalist practices, the stability of interethnic relations, and confessional consensus. We concluded that ethno-federalism in Malaysia has become a factor in maintaining political stability in the country and an obstacle to the avalanche-like process of liberalization of domestic policy.
When considering the negotiation processes within the framework of the conflict in Donbass and the documents adopted, most researchers focus on the Minsk agreements and the Normandy format, as well as the processes associated with them. At the same time, it seems relevant to consider the Geneva format, which included representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the U.S., and the European Union, as the first attempt to resolve the crisis in Ukraine with the help of multilateral format of conflict resolution. This format allowed for the signing of the first comprehensive agreement to resolve the conflict — the Geneva statement, which became the forerunner of the Minsk agreements and other agreements to resolve the conflict. The document included provisions designed to reduce tensions, but due to different interpretations of the clauses of the agreement by the actors involved, it was not implemented in a comprehensive way. The aim of the study was to take a comprehensive look at the Geneva Format and the Geneva Statement to understand their place and role in the conflict resolution process. The study analyzed the background of the Geneva meeting, the positions of the parties involved in the discussions, the document adopted during the negotiations and the consequences of the agreements in the context of the developing conflict in Ukraine.
Amidst the US-China confrontation the behavior of other key international players is often construed regarding their stance towards Washington or Beijing. For example, when the EU published a Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in 2021, many saw it as a gesture of solidarity with Washington. The article suggests that the document reflects rather the general evolution of the EU foreign policy under the influence of the Global Strategy of 2016 and aims at proactive strengthening of the EU’s “actormess” in different regions of the world. In practice, it leads to changing methods and instruments of dealing with partners. To verify the hypothesis the article does the following — uses discourse analysis to study all EU strategic documents on Asia in the post-bipolar era and identify typical methods of engaging with the region; specifically analyses the recent document to show similarities and differences with previous ones; visualizes the results of the analysis through the MOST model of organizational behavior. Apart from this, to see if the Chinese factor played its role in adjusting the EU policy in Asia, the article plays particular attention to the evolution of Beijing’s place in the EU strategy. The conclusions confirm the hypothesis.
This article presents the causes and consequences of the involvement of trans-regional and non-regional states within the processes of the Caspian region and the Persian Gulf as the main part of the strategic energy ellipse put forward by Jeffrey Camp. The author presented his vision for the future of the region, taking into account the coming to power of a conservative president in Iran, disappointed in the lifting of US sanctions within the negotiations on the nuclear deal. Consequently, the orientation of the Iranian state to the East is strengthening; relations with Russia, China and neighboring countries are expanding.
FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
The article presents an algorithm for conducting resource-actor analysis in political research. Proposed algorithm is based on the use of SWOT analysis and elements of game theory. The author analyzed political actors, resources, institutions by analogy with companies competing in the market. The internal and external environment of actors is studied, key assets and competencies are identified. The obtained results are entered into the SWOT analysis matrix. The firm’s strengths and capabilities form the basis of the strategy. Weaknesses and threats pose potential risks. Based on the game theory payment matrix, the author presented four possible outcomes of the case actors’ game. Also, the possibility of using the concepts of a minimum winning coalition and veto players to form a strategy is shown.
The article presents an overview of modern studies of political radicalism in the context of civic activism. The author considers models of radicalization expressed in the opinions and actions of citizens. He singled out the main directions of political radicalism and marked the demarcations with other ideological currents. The author sees the process of political radicalization as a multifactorial process of fundamental changes in society, which are figured out by the historical context, urgent socio-economic problems, and emerging challenges. The expansion of the influence of digital communications, which formed an initially uncontrolled by the state online space for the interaction of citizens and the distribution of content, facilitated the political radicalization of society. The author sees the prospects for the study of political radicalism in the study of cognitive motivation of actions, the relationship between behavioral attitudes, intentions and actions, the conversion of moods from online to offline spaces.
In recent decades, in Russian literature, special attention has been paid to the category of “fundamental social constants”, which makes it possible to highlight the fundamental characteristics of civilizational development. Moreover, in studies of this kind, it is possible to supplement the already established features of the material-material plan for the development of cultural and historical communities with symbolic aspects. They make it possible to operate with such concepts of natural science as a code or a matrix, creating the concepts of “sociocode”, “cultural code” or “institutional matrix” that have rich heuristic potential. Humanitarian research from the standpoint of fundamental social constants demonstrates a kind of “reversal” of the foundations, adopted in the traditional socio-philosophical analysis. The study of various fundamental social constants in the development of the Russian civilization has become the main topic of scientific developments in the Department of Humanities of the Financial University.
The article considers the directions of development of methodology for international rankings of higher education institutions. We highlighted the elements of methodology, including principles, systems of indicators, methods of data collection and transformation, and sources of funding. Finally, we concluded about the transformation of rankings as a set of methods for assessing the performance of institutions of higher education in one of the tools to influence the management of universities, including through public funding.
The article examines the philosophical and metaphysical ideas of Dostoevsky in comparison with the images of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The comparison is based on the theurgic approach to art advocated by both artists, which assumes that art is designed to serve the transformation of man and reality. At the same time, art is called upon to communicate to a person the truth of life, which can become an effective program for his life. Such a truth is the state of universal unity (All-in-One), which is also the state of universal love. Aiming to show the content of this truth and the ways to achieve it, Dostoevsky unfolds in his work a panorama of hell, purgatory, and paradise not as separate areas of being, but as three dimensions of a single reality. The above considerations were accompanied by references to the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov, who convincingly substantiated the comparison of Dostoevsky with Dante, as well as reminiscences from the works of Vladimir Solovyov, who embodied Dostoevsky’s ideas about universal love into the philosophical concept of universal unity.
CURRENT SOCIO-POLITICAL RESEARCH
Representatives of the younger generation today offer their own assessments of the actions of political actors based on moral values and norms. However, with a more detailed analysis of such assessments, one can notice the blurring of the criteria by which any political decision or action is evaluated. In connection with this, the question arises about the specifics of understanding by the young generations of those moral values and norms that serve as a justification for the proposed assessments. The empirical basis of the study is the results of the project “Moral and political in the minds of Russian youth: value orientations, ethical ideas and political attitudes”, implemented in 2020–2021. The proposed article touches upon the issue of the influence of the socio-political identity of the representatives of the younger generation on their moral assessments of political phenomena and processes. The results of the study show the special attention of young respondents to the values of justice, freedom, human rights, and self-realization.
The article discusses the practice of creating a digital community by independent media projects, the importance of which has grown during the pandemic due to the transformational processes of the “media-audience” relationship. Thus, the pandemic, which has accelerated the transition of all media market actors to digital communication, has reduced the importance of territorial binding of the media editorial office to its audience. At the same time, the role of solidarity of the audience with journalists online has increased. The research task of the article is to identify factors and describe the most successful communicative practices in the Russian media space, conducted through digital platforms for creating a community. The author points to the development of the practice of financial and content participation of the audience with the help of digital platforms and highlights the factors for the creation of such a community by editorial offices. Summarizing the analysis of online media practices during the pandemic and expert interviews with journalists, the author of the article emphasizes that the virtual community today is not only desirable, but also the only feasible way for the development and survival of professional journalistic projects.
The article presents the study of the features of the protest and pro-government network audience involved in the Belarusian protest agenda in 2020–2021. The relevance of this topic is due to the similarity of the economic, social, and cultural space of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, which gives grounds to assume the interaction of unconventional Russian political actors with similar groups in our country. The research methodology is hybrid in nature and consists of cognitive mapping, automated social media analysis and in-depth interviews. The article presents the results obtained during the implementation of the developed methodology. As a prospect for this study, it should be noted the development of tools and a scheme for forming a sample population for conducting a mass survey to determine the ratio of the identified motivations and patterns of behaviour among supporters of protest and government.
The article presents a socio-media analysis of protest moods in the Republic of Belarus in 2020. As part of working with a database collected through IQ Buzz, the author presented the dynamics of protest mentions in social media by main time intervals and cities of the country, the rating of the most popular words, and also showed the role of external forces in influencing the protest moods of Belarusian citizens. The results obtained allow us to consider the process of organizing mass protests through media tools as a technology with its own patterns and features.
The problem of effective civic participation and constructive political protest in contemporary Russia is one of the most urgent because of both the ongoing nation-building, and for strengthening and expanding mass legal awareness, activating social forces in the cause of sustainable socio-political development. In this regard, the article analyzes the process of digital transformation of Russian civil protest participation. The study is based on the provisions of systemic, neoinstitutional and comparative analysis, using a statistical method. The authors noted that the political protest of citizens using digital technologies is characterized by a non-violent and peaceful nature, carried out mainly in social networks and cross-platform messengers, as well as in mobile applications (such as maps with the ability to label and comment).
The modern world offers new challenges for the world economic relations. Nowadays culture is one of the most important aspects in understanding different economic and business environments because it reflects various historical and traditional peculiarities of this or that society. The country development can be influenced by its own culture and, therefore, correct understanding the nature of culture and its characteristics is substantial to international business relations. The relevance of the study of intercultural communication issues and, mainly, the acquaintance of students-future economists with them responds to modern globalization, which does not stay on the sidelines from business. Knowledge and awareness of young professionals in the field of intercultural communication is one of the most important soft skills and determines their successful career development and achievement of high goals at work. Consequently, the necessity to bring in basic and practical scholastic attainments of the above-mentioned science in the sphere of education becomes more comprehensive and crucial. The method of involving students at Financial University in the generic question of intercultural communication is an online course prepared by teachers of the department of foreign languages and cross-cultural communication. This educational tool illustrated students’ interest in studying this academic discipline, their desire to develop new skills and deepen existing knowledge. The results of the online course displayed a high percentage of digestibility of the material by students and increasing motivation to study this area of knowledge on their own.
This article is devoted to the practice of public speaking as an opportunity to apply the method of mutual learning in the digital age, including in distance learning, when studying English as a foreign language in a non-linguistic university. The author considers the presentation as one of the ways to acquire the skills of dialogue and its implementation. An overview of the applications that have dominated the market over the past years is given to create presentations with an analysis of their popularity in the Russian Federation and the world based on data provided by the American transnational corporation Google. It also offers information about the emergence of such a phenomenon as globalization in the context of the dialogue of cultures. The etymology of the concept of “presentation” is revealed and the main stages of the emergence of the program for preparing and viewing Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations are outlined. A brief excursion into the history of mutual learning is made, and the transformation of the practical application of this method from Ancient Greece to the present day is described, both in real space and on the Internet.
We based our article on the results of a study of the psychological state of Russian society in the context of age characteristics, the specifics of the political socialization of Russians. Also, we based our study on a political and psychological approach. It makes possible determination of the emotional reactions that Russians demonstrate when assessing the socio-political reality. Further, we studied the emotional colouring of political ideas taking into account the event context (the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the electoral processes in Russia in 2021). The results of the analysis allow us to speak about the existing differences in the perception of current socio-political problems by representatives of different age groups. During the study, we revealed some features of the mythologization of the images of the past by Russians in the category of “young adults”. It is due to the specifics of the political socialization of citizens of this age category. The article presents the topics of emotional assessments by Russians of different ages of the phenomena of political trust; constructive dialogue between the authorities and society; the attractiveness of the political elite in political expectations, proposals for improving the political system. We considered the specificity of ambivalent emotions inherent in the state of young Russians. Finally, we concluded dependence of the ambiguity of Russians’ assessments of the correlation between the categories of Law and Freedom.
The border between virtual space and real life is getting thinner: digital technologies are used everywhere, and virtual communities are increasingly influencing real economic and political life. China began an active struggle with fan communities in 2021, where fan clubs and the popularity of “idols” formed an alternative social force capable of influencing economic and social processes. The Chinese experience of controlling and restricting the fan environment has become the first in the world, while examples of using the resources of fan communities for political purposes have been known in the United States and China itself for years. Can the fan community become an active element of civil society or an effective tool of political struggle? The article examines the phenomenon of fan communities in the context of political science, current cases of using the power of fandom in politics and prospects for the development of fan culture within civil society.
STARTUP OF THE YOUNG SCIENTIST
The article discusses measures caused by geopolitical challenges, taken by states, and limiting the formation of a global digital space. With the aim to counter new threats to the country, institutions are being created that establish national boundaries of cyberspace. States are striving to create systems for regulating the digital space to preserve their sovereignty, and this process is a modern global trend. The development of the “sovereign Internet” institution in Russia is an element of state policy to limit external influence while destabilizing the political situation.
The article provides an overview of publications on relations between Russia and USA. The advantages of reviewing publications through the Scopus database are outlined, as well as aspects that need to be considered when compiling a search query within the selected research subject. The dynamics of the number of publications for 2016–2021, the main sources, authors, organizations funding sponsors and keywords were identified. It is determined that the greatest interest in the topic is manifested by the United States, Russia, and Great Britain. Apart from the countries of West, East and Central Africa, at least one article on relations between Russia and USA was published in almost all other states during the selected period. The results obtained proved the relevance of the study, since nothing was found in any of the indicators that would go beyond the scope of the study.
ISSN 2619-1482 (Online)