Vol 20, No 3 (2018)

The article deals with the issues of Russia's national security, conditioned by the trends of the development of Russian-American relations during the administration of D. Trump. The author analyzes the factors that influence the US foreign policy toward Russia in 2017-18. The article proves that the tendency to deterioration of relations has a long-term character, which is caused by fundamental processes in the American elite. The main trend in its development is the strengthening of neoconservative forces and the growing influence of the so-called deep state. The influence of the neocons was manifested in the staffing of the American foreign policy course. Leading positions in the US government were taken by persons associated with neoconservative think tanks - the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Brookings Institution, the Atlantic Council, and others. The author determines the nature of American foreign policy as a combination of foreign policy idealism and elements of realism. The process of developing a new American strategy in a changing world, a realistic realization of the US limits of its power predetermines turbulence and instability in US-Russian relations, the alternation of elements of containment and dialogue in mutual relations. The basis of the US national strategy remains the neoconservative principle of “peace through strength”, which is currently manifested in the modification of the US nuclear component and the destruction of the existing structure of strategic stability.

This article has several aims. First, it is focused on revealing the disconcerting recent policies of President of Turkey R.T. Erdogan and his associates towards Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. These policies are characterized by aggressiveness and bellicosity, constituting a paradigm case of Turkey’s broader geopolitical ambitions. Second, an attempt is made to account for R.T. Erdogan’s probable political intentions and geopolitical ambitions via a number of explanatory hypotheses rationalizing their “incomprehensible” nature. And third, the article will determine the principal methods and means used in the foreign policy decision-making of Erdogan’s regime, and will expand on his skillful employment of logical fallacies that have remained undetected in Erdogan-related bibliography.

This article looks into solutions offered by the international community to the countries suffering from a constant influx of refugees and which require international assistance. Refugee migration is a type of forced migration. Since the introduction of international refugee law, the international community has been using one of the three solutions to the refugee problem: voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement in a third country. The article regards resettlement in a third country as the main solution to the global refugee problem, which should be used on a large scale. The article also reviews the cases of interference in the developing countries’ internal affairs and the role of such interference in aggravating the refugee problem. Despite the benevolence of the intentions, such as the protection of the refugees’ human rights, this intervention demonstrated the opposite effect in certain cases in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Consequently, the author touches upon the importance of the peaceful ways in solving and preventing the problem of refugees. Finally, the article points out the international community’s new approach to the problem: integration of development projects and refugee support programs in countries needing this type of assistance.

For Russia, as a multicultural and multi-confessional state, ethnic and religious factors play an important role in state building and identity formation of its citizens. The post-Soviet history of the Russian Federation has demonstrated their importance in shaping the political identity of Russian regions, especially in the national republics. Thus, for many republics with Muslim population, Islam becomes one of the most important components of everyday life, while for the local elites it is an element of formation of the region's identity policy. The case study of the Republic of Tatarstan is intended to show the factors and incentives for the actualization of the religious factor in the life of the local community and in the political structure of the region. The research, conducted with the help of historical and sociological methods, traces the dynamics of the religious factor: a) at the level of mass consciousness of the Tatar Muslim community; b) at the ideological level. The latter includes the activities of the political and spiritual elites of the region, as well as external influences(Russian domestic and foreign policy, Islamic globalization) on the use and interpretation of the Islamic factor.

One of the priorities of the current reform of Russian public administration, including the regional authorities, is the creation of an optimal system for assessing its effectiveness. The author suggests a reputational approach to assessing the efficiency of regional administration. In this approach, reputation is seen as a kind of “resulting criterion” for social effectiveness of government agencies. The author presents basic provisions of new and novel balanced system of methods for assessing executive authorities’ efficiency in federal subjects of Russia. This system makes it possible to identify both successes and failures in implementing state regional policy, taking into account the so-called “coefficient of public opinion”. The key idea of the reputational approach to assessing the efficiency of regional power consists in identifying both objective and subjective factors, which directly correlate with each other. Public opinion, influencing the objective factors, plays a crucial role in the assessment. The socially oriented assessment system has top priority in the efficiency evaluation, which consists in adjustment of objective factors in accordance with public opinion. The author presents an algorithm for the development of evaluation methods, which includes five basic steps and key principles for building a system of indicators to assess the effectiveness of regional authorities based on the reputational approach.

The article analyzes the process of cultivating images of politicians of the past and determines its specifics as well as factors influencing the formation of the images. It concludes that the image of a politician of the past is formed mainly within the general framework of political image making. In this process, mechanisms of stereotyping, categorization and casual attribution are used. The image is created by means of visualization and verbal practices. It is formed on conscious and subconscious levels, due to which its nature is ambivalent. The image exists in the form of verbal codes and symbols and contains both rational and emotional components. Image characteristics of political figures of the past are manifested greatly through visualization. In most cases, the lack of authentic visualization of a person’s appearance causes the audience to refer to stereotypes in order to complete the image. Moreover, building the image of a historical figure is significantly less often based on the personal experience of the target audience. Finally, the image creator has access to a wider set of nominations, within which the character is positioned. This becomes possible due to the elements of national mythology, based on the archetypes of mass consciousness, and the sacred nature of the historical epic stories centered around the political figure in question.

The presidency institution is of special importance to the majority of Post-Soviet States and plays a key role in their respective political arenas. At the same time, the existing institutional mechanisms of presidential power significantly differ from the "classic" world models which they were initially based on. This is true for the nature of the presidency institution and, to a greater degree, to the peculiarities of its function. Even though the institutional design of their political systems differs significantly, the presidential power in Post-Soviet countries functions in fairly similar ways. With that said, it appears necessary to identify patterns of development of the presidency institution in the Post-Soviet countries that developed over almost three decades. Pursuant thereto, this article attempts to analyze the dynamics of development of the presidency institution in these states, their respective peculiarities of function, the existing institutional mechanisms of interaction between the head of state and other public authorities, as well as its influence on the political system as a whole. The author looks at the presidential power not only from the formal-institutional perspective but also takes into account the most frequent informal practices.

This article discusses the actual contemporary problems of the spread of fake news, information wars and disinformation campaigns. The authors analyze recent European initiatives in the field of opposing disinformation on the Internet, among which are the report of the High level expert group of the European Commission on fake news and online disinformation (HLEG) and the “Act to improve law enforcement in social networks” (NetzDG). Based on a wide range of political theories and approaches to the problem of fake news, the authors propose to enhance and amend the key principles of HLEG 5.