Vol 12, No 4 (2020)

Chinese historiography, concerning the period of Qing administration’s strengthening in the Tibetan region, shows the concept 三足鼎立 (sānzú dĭnglì), which literally means “to establish a bronze tripod” or figuratively “tripartite balance of power”. The Panchen Lama incarnation lineage become one of the three pillars of Qing power in Tibet by the middle of the XVIII century. The 5th Panchen Lama Lobsang Yeshe got many privileges from Kangxi and Yongzheng emperors, was invited to Beijing and even considered to be the regent for the Dalai Lama VII. Lobsang Yeshe played a mediating role in a number of internal and external conflicts, recognized the incarnations of the three Dalai Lamas, enhance the government in Tashilhunpo, and generally played a prominent role in the history of Tibeto-Qing relations.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the position of the countries of South-East Asia on the construction of security architecture in the region within the framework of the Indo-Pacific region project in the format promoted by the USA. The article examines in detail the factors that determine the attitude of Southeast Asian countries to the American doctrine of “free and open Indo-Pacific”, which they assess as strategically risky and leading to deformation of the existing security system in the region with the loss of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) its central role in ensuring its stability. The response of the Southeast Asian countries to external challenges was the formation of their own concept Asean’s - "Outlook On The Indo-Pacific, which reflects their views on the nature of the relationship within the emerging community. The author analyzes in detail the content of the ASEAN doctrine, which emphasizes the promotion of economic cooperation between the countries of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, in contrast to the geostrategic orientation of the American concept. Three main areas of cooperation are distinguished - maritime cooperation, the development of connectivity and interaction in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Offering such a format for engaging, ASAEN countries proceed from the need to strengthen trust between countries as the most important condition for maintaining peace and order in the region based on the traditional principles of ASEAN. These include: openness, transparency, inclusiveness, rules-based world order anchored on international law, respect for sovereignty, non-interference, equality, mutual trust and respect. ASEAN’s position remains unchanged in maintaining its central role in the evolution of the regional security architecture. Speaking from the position of multirealism, ASEAN sees a way to overcome the conflict of interests in the region in the context of escalating rivalry between the US and China, in creating a synergistic security system based on mechanisms associated with ASEAN. In the ASEAN concept, India-Pacific Region appears as a region of dialogue and cooperation, rather than competition, open to participation of China in the project. The author comes to the conclusion that such format is justified both from the point of view of strategic interests of the countries of Southeast Asia and the whole region, if the relations within it are based on the principles advocated by ASEAN. However, as the author emphasizes, the project proposed by the Southeast Asian countries raises many questions, the main of which is its feasibility in the context of the emerging split of the region along the axis of US-China rivalry for leadership in Asia. Nevertheless, as the author notes, the tendency to strengthen economic cooperation between the countries located in the basin of two oceans creates the basis for the growth of their interest in developing a stable security architecture.

The article discusses the Eurasian doctrine of Askar Akayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan in 1991-2005. This is a very little studied problem in Russian historiography. Meanwhile, A. Akayev developed and largely implemented in practice a harmonious philosophical and political concept. This article is intended to fill this gap. The place of Russia in the geopolitical concept of A. Akayev deserves special attention, which emphasizes the importance and central role of Russia in Eurasian integration, which never acted as a colonial power, but was a center of attraction for the multinational people of the Russian Empire, the USSR and the Russian Federation.

The article treats of one of the most important monuments of Republic Rome history - the epigraphic agrarian law 111 BC. The purpose of this source-studying paper is an integrated characteristic of this monument as an historical source. The author describes the monument externally, shows the history of it’s reconstruction, raises the issue of it’s attribution, and assesses it’s relevance as a source on a number of aspects of the life of Ancient Rome.

The article reviews main works of Russian and foreign authors devoted to the study of the history of medieval Dagestan based on Arabic sources of the 9th-13th centuries on a chronological basis. The Dagestan society political and social life, historical geography, islamization of the region were these and other questions under the focus of these scholars who had developed them on the basis of the in-depth study and knowledge of Arabic historical and geographical sources. The scientific novelty of the paper is determined by the fact that in this work a comparative study of the literature throughout the 19th and early 21st centuries, belonging to the Russian and foreign historiography on “Dagestan according to the Arab authors of the 9th-13th centuries”, is carried out. The material presented in the article makes it possible to see the source-study outcomes of scholars in studying the history of medieval Dagestan from early Arabic sources, and shows different aspects of the problem which need further development.

-