The article examines the origins and conceptual analysis capabilities of international relations in the framework of a realistic paradigm. We research political conditions and preconditions of the creation of realism’s theory and axiological features of realism’s practice in international relations. We also analyze the basic concepts and schools of realism: Realpolitik, political realism, neorealism, neoclassical realism. It is shown that based on the balance of power in the Realpolitik Prussian and Austrian cases, this understanding of politics within the systematics of the XIX century; the adaptation of the bourgeois liberal and national ideas to the foreign-policy specifics Germany middle of the XIX century. It is shown that political realism is targeting an international actor on the desire to subjugate the greatest possible political space. In the case of political weakness (absolute or relative) political realism indicates a way of adapting to circumstances in order to achieve the most desirable of the possible. The article discusses the concept A. Rochau, H. Morgenthau, H. Kissinger, K. Waltz, showing differences and instrumentality realistic theories and concludes that the main provisions of the concept as a whole.

In the given article, the author analyzes the concept of state capacity, widely popular among political scientists and international relations specialists. The author proves that the evaluations of the level of state capacity of the developing and postcommunist countries based on popular comparative ratings are generally biased because of methodological defects and discrepancy of the whole theory as well as politicization and indoctrination of the given ratings. The negative evaluations of the quality of the government and state capacity of a country could be used to discredit and delegitimize the political regime as well as substantiation of mass protests and color revolutions and a tool of information war. The author concludes that numerous comparative international ratings are often used as a tool of political influence.

The article analyzes international conflict studies as a science and an educational discipline. The analysis of the subject field and professional terminology adopted in this area both in Russian and in English is provided. Formation of international conflict studies as a distinct field of study in the United States and Western Europe is described. The results of analysis of 10 leading foreign schools on international conflict studies are presented. The main factors that were taken into account in identifying the leading centers were the existence of a separate research (educational) analysis units of international conflicts, the world's leading scientific journals on conflict resolution, as well as databases for the analysis of international conflicts. The role of professional associations, education consortia and international organizations (UNESCO) in the study of international conflicts is described. An analysis of the leading think tanks on defense and national security (as rated by Philadelphia think tank ranking) is also provided. Particular attention is given to interdisciplinary research methodology of international conflicts and the structure of educational programs at leading schools in the world in international relations. The author summarizes the recommendations of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) to create educational programs of this kind.

This article deals with the problem of radical Islam in the Fergana valley. Main characteristics of the region and the factors that contribute to the spread of extremist religious movements have been identified and described by the authors. The region that already has a high potential for confliction because of unresolved inter-state, inter-ethnic issues is a storm center of radical religious movements’ development. The revival of Islam has predetermined its further politicization, and then because of objective and subjective reasons its radicalization. The processes of re-islamization typical for Central Asian countries in the late twentieth century, accompanied by attempts of the leaders to get the support of the population. Radical Islam, in turn, became widespread in the territory of neighboring countries, in particular the Russian Federation. Thus, it should be noted that improper treatment of the foundations of traditional Islam, the spread of radical ideas represent a threat to stability and security not only at national but also at regional and global levels. Causes of the radical extremist movements, as well as increasing number of followers of these organizations in the Fergana Valley are important part of the article. The authors of the paper have assessed the activities of Islamic movements in the three countries of the Central Asian region, as well as a comparative analysis of the situation in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been provided. The article presents the differences in the approaches and methods of struggling of the governments of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan against nonconformist religious movements. The main conclusion of the article is the recognition of the diversity within the accepted approaches of neighboring states to solve the problem of radical Islamist movements. The article notes the high probability of downfall of the “fragile stability” that occurred in the Ferghana Valley.

The article is devoted to the activities of the Ukrainian think tanks in the context of studying “the Center of it. A. Razumkov” activity, which is supposed to be the leading Ukrainian think tank. The authors examined in detail the mechanisms and principles of the center’s work, analyzed the activity of key experts including A. Gritsenko, G. Sherr, P. Rozenko, A. Melnyk, I. Zhdanov, V. Chaly, Yu. Mostovaya, N. Martynenko, A. Rachok and sources of funding. The researchers highlighted a number of issues of the Ukrainian system of analytical centers, including the closed system of decision making at the state and local authorities level, the lack of demand for the services of independent analytical structures by public authorities, weak financial, material and technical base, the absence of staff training, poor communication between the centers, insufficient use of the Internet, software and hardware, information-analytical systems, and so on. While analyzing their activities the author comes to the conclusion that they have mostly been funded by various agencies (including foreign ones) and used in opposition between the local political and financial elites. As a result their expert assessments and analytics very often did not reflect the real situation. Within the civil war in Ukraine in 2013-2014’s these think tanks finally turned into an instrument of information and psychological war, being discredited by their actual support to the actors which had staged a coup and started a struggle against their own nation.

The article examines the role of “analytical centers” in the US foreign policy agenda. From a variety of “think tanks” highlights those who have made the greatest impact on the foreign policy - the Heritage Foundation and the Center for American progress. They examine U.S. relations with other regions of the world. The marked correlation between the reports of these think tanks and the positions of the Democratic and Republican parties of the USA. Based on the publications of articles and reports from these centers, it is considered one of the directions of U.S. foreign policy. In the article there is the comparative analysis of the approaches of these centers to the problem of Iran's nuclear program. This question is particularly acute on the agenda in relations between Iran and the United States. In addition, in 2015, the negotiations between Iran and the Six mediators on the nuclear issue has entered a crucial stage, it makes this issue the most relevant. The author makes a conclusion about the extent of American influence of “think-tanks” on foreign policy decisions in general and on specific political situation.

In article the ideology of turkish foreign policy is analyzed, elaborated and successfully put into practice by the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, and nowadays by prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Foreign policy strategy of Davutoglu represents set of the interconnected theoretical (the flexible approach; consistency and systematic approach; new diplomatic style) and practical principles directed on increase of a role of the Turkish state on international scene - balance between democracy and safety; “zero of problems with neighbours”; preventive and priority peace diplomacy; multidimensional foreign policy; rhythmical diplomacy. Each of principles possesses certain properties and characteristics which have always been presented as a certain purpose which is necessary for reaching Turkey in the difficult international environment. Undoubtedly, A. Davutoglu's ideology has brought the huge contribution to activization and expansion of foreign policy of Turkey last decade. The merit of Davutoglu consists that it has cardinally changed the approach of the Turkish state to the foreign policy which was based earlier on such postulate - “the best friend of a Turk is a Turk”. However the destructive events which have passed and occurring today as in the Turkish state (terrorism strengthening, instability of political system), and also in region of the Middle East - civil war in Syria, deterioration of relations with Russia, Greece, Syria, Iran and Iraq have called into question a number of positions of the concept of Davutoglu in this connection in article some attention to the critic of its approach is paid also.

The article examines the phenomenon of Twitplomacy and its influence on the foreign policy of the countries of the world in recent years. Actual Facts show that Twitter has become an innovative tool of public diplomacy and has changed the perception of how the diplomacy works. Now, citizens and politicians in many countries have the opportunity to know instantly about international political events and also communicate with others ones to share opinions about these events. But apart from that, Twitter can be evaluated in quantitative terms. The opinion of active Twitter users worldwide can be measured to create surveys related to the popular support for world leaders. It is an alternative to develop statistics for understanding the citizens’ political preferences that even have already been used by certain private organizations to design rankings of international governance. At the same time, world leaders, politicians and diplomats realized the benefits of several services of Twitter to have close relationships with their voters. But the political and strategic value of Twitter is ambiguous. It seems that Twitter brings more benefits to some states than others. The level of technological development in some countries determines the degree of influence of this social network on the public opinion. Undoubtedly, thanks to Twitter, the relationship between social networks and diplomacy has become a modern phenomenon, which shows that social networks can play an important role in keep peace between nations.

The article evaluates mutual perception of the United States and China in the XXI century, based on content analysis of American and Chinese media. The research methodology includes both content and event analysis. To conduct content analysis we used leading weekly news magazines of US and China - “Newsweek” and “Beijing Review”. The events, limiting the time frame of analysis are Barack Obama's re-election to the second term in 2012, and the entry of Xi Jinping as the chairman of China in 2013. As a result, we have analyzed the issues of each magazine one year before and after the events respectively. Thematic areas covered by articles (politics, economy, culture), as well as stylistic coloring titles of articles are examined. Following the results of the analysis China confidently perceives itself in the international arena. In turn, the US are committed by emphasizing speed and power of the Chinese point out the negative consequences of such a jump (“growing pains”), on the challenges facing China in domestic and foreign policy, in order to create a negative image of China in the minds of American citizens.

Bear F. Braumoeller (Ph. D., University of Michigan), Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science of Ohio State University, is a leading American experts both in international relations, especially international security, and statistical methodology. His book-length systemic theory of international relations is a winner of the 2014 International Studies Association Best Book Award and the 2014 J. David Singer Book Award. In his interview he is talking about contemporary methods of applied research of international relations and its efficiency. As recent LaCour-Green scandal demonstrates, political science in general and international studies in particulary are becoming more about science. Dr. B. Braumoeller touches on the issue of efficient IR research methodology and speaks about the role of quantative methods in IR and especially about statistics. He speeks about the evolution of quantitative methodology in American IR science. Some decennies ago, a few pioneers in the field (David Singer, Bruce Russett, Karl Deutsch, Dina Zinnes) published their papers in fairly obscure journals and now the IR journals are dominated by quantitative studies. But for better quantitative studies, a better formal theory of IR is needed. He discusses also epistemological aspects of quantitative studies. Though the mainstream formal modeling in IR is traditionally associated with neorealist and neoliberal approaches, agent-based modeling (ABM) could be brought to bear very effectively on constructivist questions.

Currently, there is an intensification of integration processes in the global economy. Integration is an effective tool to overcome the modern challenges and threats. However, for the effective countries and regions integration in the global economy it requires the active development of innovation processes along with the integration processes. On the 29th of May, 2014 in Astana the Treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union was signed by the Presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and entered into force on the First of January 2015. In this regard, the article analyzes the foundations of the knowledge economy concept. Moreover, it researches the emergence of the Eurasian knowledge economy in several stages using the statistical data and the index method. The article suggests that the Eurasian Economic Union has a significant potential for the development of the Eurasian regional knowledge economy and proposes a number of measures for successful formation of it. International legal formalization of the process can become Eurasian Convention in the field of the knowledge economy. This article expands the understanding of the prospects of integration and innovation processes within the Eurasian Economic Union.

This publication is the review on the book of Peter Hays Gries “The Politics of American Foreign Policy: How Ideology Divides Liberals and Conservatives over Foreign Affairs”. The book consists of Preface, Introduction, the Text from two parts: Part I “Concepts” includes 5 chapters, Part II “Cases” also includes 5 chapters and four of them description the relations of the USA with the world regions: Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, the South Asia and the last chapter - relations with the international organizations. The end of the text is the Conclusion. Besides the text of book consists of 100 illustrations and 2 charts. The Preface was written by David Lyle Boren, the President of Oklahoma University and the US Ex-Senator (1979-1994), where he was at the head of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and he knows the topic which the author of monograph studies. The problems is studied by P.H. Gries are interested by the native specialists, who studies the international relations. This book is recommended to students, post-graduate students, scientists and all of them who are interested by the problems of international relations.