The article examines the factors that determine the importance of Ukraine as a country which inner development may strengthen and stabilize or weaken and destabilize the international security at a regional and global levels. The author analyzed Ukraine's national interests and geopolitical aspirations of its neighbors - Russia, NATO and the EU, their rivalry for influence over Ukraine.

Economic sanctions, an age-old tool of statecraft, are becoming increasingly central to shaping strategic outcomes. In the post-Cold War economic sanctions have become virtually the default option in US foreign policy. They are now employed by American diplomacy for a wide range of purposes and always have consequences. The article focuses in particular on the economic sanctions as a powerful tool to discourage the nuclear proliferation, highlights the key concepts of nonproliferation sanctions policy. The most important nuclear sanctions legislation, like Nuclear Nonproliferation Act, Nuclear Nonproliferation Prevention Act, the Symington, the Pressler and the Glenn amendments is analyzed. A major conclusion made in the article is that in spite of the proliferation of US nonproliferation economic sanctions they rarely work as intended, but often undermine American foreign policy goals. Enhancing our understanding of nonproliferation economic sanctions in US foreign policy, this article will be of interest to policy-makers, diplomats and scholars of international politics, international law, and US foreign policy.

The article is devoted to the examination of the principal Russia’s security challenges in the 21 st century. Main threats and key international problems as well as potential ways to cope with them are under analysis.

The article is devoted to Israeli experts and politicians’ approaches to actual issues of national security. In 2013-2014 some innovative ideas emerged which define quite new goals and projects in the field of security and foreign policy. Accomplishment of these innovative goals is able to change position and status of the State of Israel in international relations.

The article is devoted to the examination of the economic separatism problem in the European Union member states. It considers specific of the regional separatist movements as exemplified by the conflicts in Scotland, Catalonia, Bavaria, Flanders. Various points of view on the relevance of the budgetary separatism for the European integration process are given in the article.

The concept of national reconciliation became policy strategies in political discourse in Zimbabwe and Namibia after independence and South Africa after democratisation. The objective was to avoid the civil war experienced in neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after independence. Current argument however is that reconciliation mainly harmonising relations between blacks and whites and between the new government and capital is not sufficient. It is argued that reconciliation should fundamentally extent to the formerly deprived black majority the right of access to natural resource and addresses their economic well being. Political processes and developments in these three countries also reveal that settlement compromises made at independence and new democratic dispensation predicated on liberal constitutions followed by neo-liberal economic policies are sources of enormous governance challenges facing the leadership of these countries today.

As part of this work presents the analysis of the basic document and the legal framework of the peace settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the modern stage - «Madrid or Basic principles», presented to the sides of the negotiations at the OSCE ministerial conference in the Spanish capital Madrid in November 2007. The both side’s statements, international mediators and institutes form a legal background of the vector and the framework of the negotiation process. There are the fundamental differences and contradictions in the approaches of the sides of the negotiations to the «Basic principles» of the settlement in this article. The work contains a comparison of the various items and elements of the Madrid document both in relation to each other, and to the principles of international law.

The article describes establishment and development of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan that turn 20 years this year. As proved in this article, over the years, a sequential process of development of the two major CIS member-states that is based on a rich historical tradition of the USSR, can become a new model of establishment of equal and mutually beneficial relations between the independent states that emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In this regard, the author concludes that well-organized Russian-Kazakh diplomatic relations have allowed to significantly strengthened the interstate political, economic, humanitarian and other areas of cooperation in the last 20 years.

Socio-economic backwardness of the developing countries is potentially dangerous not only on a local or regional, but also at the global level. South is part of the world economy. Its economic, political and social problems already have and will in the future affect the state of international security. The article analyzes the dynamics, geography and structure of foreign investment in African countries by the example of Tanzania. The conclusion about the need to attract foreign direct investment for the development and modernization of African economies and their integration into the world economy.

The article deals with the Soviet Union position on disarmament negotiations in the second half of the twentieth century. The authors noted the role and importance of the policy of the USSR and Russia on the strengthening of the international situation in solving disarmament issues, strengthening international security during that period. The documents and materials disclosed actual position of the USSR/Russia and the United States on the issue of security in general and the specific aspects related to the rarefaction.

The article analyses general regularities of development of international organizations. Dynamics of international organizations is described with the equation of biological populations’ growth and is related to the evolution of international multilateral law and world development parameters. As the result of the research, the evolution of global political system is represented with the system of international governance based on the multilateral mechanisms and the model of social structures’ types. The transformations in the system of international organizations partially confirm the hypothesis of emerging World-organism.