The article addresses the issue of historical context of the Russian foreign policy and its practical implications. The author points out that the current political developments within the international system cannot be understood properly without assessing the historical trajectory of the Russian identity. The article divided into three parts that demonstrate the importance of the contextual approach to the Russian foreign policy. The first part deals with the changes in international power balance and the need to conceptualize the new normal without suppressing opposing narratives. The second part assess the practical consideration of such a conceptualization with the aim of mitigating the current tensions between the Russian Federation and the Western states. The third part presents an overview of the Russian approach towards tong-term international stability, distributional international justice and mutual respect.

The author concludes that profound change in the international system did not bring considerable alteration in the Russian strategic culture and strategic vision. The article also reassesses the widespread idea of colonialism as the core elements of the Russian strategic thinking. The historical context of the Russian foreign policy proves the opposite view that the vision of self in Russia is much more about bridging the gaps and facilitating mutual dialog. Moreover, the author believes that the main reason for that approach is the relatively stable international position of Russia (in terms of centuries, rather than decades).

There are a variety of literatures that illuminate the logic and character of the post -Cold War transformation of the global system. One literature explores the rise and decline of the great powers and the international orders that they establish and dominate. This paper explores the evolution of the international system in historical perspective with particular emphasis on the role of the United States before and after the end of the Cold War against a backdrop of broader global context. It concentrates on the end of bipolarity and the emergence of unipolar system with American dominance and hegemony and its further decline. Washington failed to endorse with practical means its declared goal of “benign hegemon”. The author makes a comparative analysis between the dawn of the British Empire and current stage of crisis development of the United States with principal issue of transformation of the world order from unipolarity to multipolarity or from single power dominance to a more balanced international system. The paper also touches upon the strategic errors the American elite has made in its relationship with Russia and China referring to them as ”adversaries and revisionist powers” hostile to the US. America shortsightedly opened the gates of modernisation before China in the vain hope to make it an ally against the Soviet Union only to be disappointed later. And it underestimated the significance of rapid Russian assertion after the break up of the Soviet Union only to have a unique situation of “two fronts” in American history. As a result of his research the author comes to a conclusion and thoroughly substantiates it with facts that a new world order emerges which can be referred to as “improved status -quo” or alternative order with new economic, financial and political institutions in sight as opposed to the old Breton - Woods system of post WW2 American dominance. Still the open question persists whether this transformation can be peaceful and consensual or fraught with new hardship for the people and even military confrontation among great powers.

Since China and Russia have moved their comprehensive strategic partnership forward towards an unprecedented height, people have wondered what the motives are behind the two huge land powers to crave this end. Historically, China and the former Soviet Union had forged the formal alliance throughout the 1950s due to the common security concerns, the shared ideologies and the strategic interests of the day. Yet, they also split into the arch rivals for nearly two decades until the early 1980s. Realist scholars believe that China and the former USSR and now Russia are doomed to compete with each other in light of their geographical vicinity and the lack of mutual trust resulted from the pursuit of greatness and historical memories. However, since the collapse of the USSR, China and Russia have developed their overall ties steadily and substantially. To well grasp the raison d’être of Sino-Russian strategic partnership, it is necessary to analyze the rationales behind the current relations between Beijing and Moscow stemming from their consensus, or «the shared views» that the future world order will be founded on multilateralism rather than unilateralism, in which China and Russia must be appropriately placed alongside the United States and other major players.

The First Russian consulates in Western China were established in 1851. Russian representatives I. Zakharov and A. Tatarinov arrived in Kulja and Chuguchak in early 1852. Numerous reports of the Russian consuls to the Asian Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs contain highly interesting material concerning the first diplomatic contacts between Russia and China. None of the documents from the Archive of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs were used by national historians, they only mentioned the fact, that according to the Treaty of Kulja Chinese cities Yili and Tarbagatai hosted Russian representatives that looked after trade. Documents from the Archive of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reveal how the first Russian consuls arranged Russian factories in Xinjiang, how they interacted with local authorities and traders, course of barter. Establishment of the first Russian consulates was essential for the further development of diplomatic relations: in 1858 China opened 7 seaports for Russian traders, in 1861 the first Russian diplomatic representative was appointed to China. Isolationism that China adhered to was left behind to promote fullscale diplomatic relations. Russian consulates were the first diplomatic missions in the Qing China and played a big role in the development of the Russian-Chinese relations.

The article is devoted to one of the variants of the settlement in the Balkans – the activities of the peacekeeping forces in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The issue is considered from the point of view of the universality of the method of the «Blue Helmets» deployment in the conflict territories, depending on the internal situation in the region. Today, the experience of the «Blue Helmets» in the territory of the former Yugoslavia is again becoming relevant regarding the active discussion on the issue of the introduction of international peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. It should be emphasized that the Yugoslav version of peacekeeping is not as unambiguous as it sometimes seems to be. The variants of the Blue Helmets’ missions were different in Croatia and BiH. Which of them were more successful in terms of preventing further hostilities? As the experience of the Blue Helmets in BiH has shown, the protection of only certain cities could not suspend hostilities and contributed to the strengthening of only one side of the conflict. More effective was the experience of peacekeeping in Croatia, where for several years the disengagement of the belligerents brought peace and the opportunity for the civilian population to avoid numerous victims. The drawback of the peacekeepers’ activities in Croatia was that they could not withstand the military offensive operations of the Croatian army in the Serbian region, in fact parting before it.

This paper analyses the situation, caused by the growing labour migration from China to Italy. In the beginning of the paper, the authors give a short outline of multiculturalism policy and its specific features in Italy. In spite of sustainable ethno-religious tolerance of Italian society (conditioned by the historical and geographical factors, such as longterm fragmentation of Italian state, the presence of a large number of ethnic minorities in a rather small area, intensive North-South internal migration), the multiculturalism policy, imposed by the European Union, has not been accustomed in this country. The reasons for it were the growth of unemployment rate, economic crisis, migration crisis, that started after 2008. The latter showed the disrespect, demonstrated by migrants to basic human rights and freedoms, and contempt to European culture and traditions, which induced the increasing discontent among Italian citizens. Then, the paper provides an overview on Italian-Chinese relations and a detailed analysis of problems, related to Chinese migration in Italy. Chinese migrants form a considerable diaspora in this country, living in isolated, almost self-governed communities, claiming for their rights and participating in a variety of criminal activities. The authors define the reasons for the formation of this trend and analyse the way, how the problem is being dealt with.

Given the influx of refugees into Europe, the migration problem is growing increasingly urgent in France and in the EU in general. Besides, if earlier the economic needs of the country were put at the center of solving immigration issues, now the government should also proceed from security considerations, since the main negative consequence of the migration policy conducted until recently is the growing threat to the security of citizens. The major challenge the French authorities are facing is maintaining security and social cohesion, with at the same time human rights observed and republican values respected. Addressing the migration challenge on the existing legal basis is getting more and more problematic. The article briefly analyzes the institutional and political constraints on the activities of the government, as well as the immigration policy of France, conducted since the arrival of Jacques Chirac, in 1995, to the presidency, to nowadays. The author, proceeding from the principles of historicism and using a systemic approach, shows that there had been an effective immigration policy to the extent that it was possible. However, the result was deplorable. Conclusion: the restrictions existing in France and other Western democracies do not allow to address the immigration challenge, to maintain order on their territories, while their populations feel increasingly insecure. The French leaders begin to understand that acting within the existing paradigm, it is not possible to overcome the migration crisis. So the governments of France, as well as other European countries, have to make a difficult choice, as a radical change in immigration policy may contravene the country’s republican values, while the continuation of the previous course risks weakening the ability to ensure the safety of citizens and preserve the national identity, as well as the republican model of a social welfare state. Recent actions in this area by President Emmanuel Macron show that the imperative of ensuring the security of its citizens is beginning to be seen as the main priority in the migration policy.

The major purpose of the paper is to discuss the problems relating to, and review the basic principles of, mechanism of anti-money laundering cooperation in the African Union. The latter is considered through the prism of efficiency in terms of institutional interaction among member states, and of the extent to which the potential of such interaction is fulfilled. Such approach, in turn, calls for: identification of forms in which the states in the region of concern cooperate on the subject-matter; assessment of the extent to which such forms are efficient and are comparable with those of the Council of Europe and the United Nations, and; definition of the perspectives for African Union’s anti-moneylaundering cooperation mechanism improvement. The paper includes the results of comparative analysis of various international conventions and local acts and regulations, and considers the compliance of regional “soft law” and institutional cooperation framework with the accepted anti-money-laundering standards, where it particularly discusses the characteristics of African Peer-Review Mechanism and the Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism as essential elements for African Union member states’ cooperation. The author emphasizes several discrepancies, and concludes that, despite the existence of sufficiently developed regulatory framework in the region, its commitment to antimoney-laundering, and creation of the applicable monitoring mechanism, the African Union fails so far to achieve high efficiency implementing the proposed measures.

In examining such a multi-layered phenomenon as Islam (like any other religion) one finds themselves at the crossroads of competing views, between and beyond orthodox and reformist. A number of “invitations” for decolonization from prominent Sufis allows representing Islam not as a network of horrifying mujahedeens, but as a real and genuine discourse community. The topic of decolonization covers our common East-West colonial heritage as well as the colonial contemporaneity. Thus, in addition to Rumi and Nietzsche, the work relies on philosophers of Khorasan, composers of Tajikistan, and modern Western philosophers of decolonization to build a strong basis for the topic. Sufi decolonization not only provides an opportunity to imbue the Platonic project on the connection between ontology and epistemology but also produces a possibility for constructive awareness of everything that was, and is, for the benefit of me-you, community, and communion of communities. This vision indicates the need for a multitude of combinations of knowledge and experiences, as well as for consideration of constant movements of the former and the latter. The lack of “multiplicity” in today’s world pushes us to a place, where we might at once get used to devices that “think” for us and “listen” to each other for us. The simplicity of such a picture is that this vision of society (and history) does not blame current “deafness,” but rather proposes for all of us, not only Muslims, to recognize the need to “return” to the ability to “listen” to each other. Within this framework, the article demonstrates the significance of the art of listening (as in the Arabic, sama), which embodies a double mysticism - the ability to listen with both ears and heart. On this basis the project of the intellectual community is being proposed; a project rooted in an organic unity of man and the world, which Ibn Sina described as odam va olam (in Tajik-Persian language). In these series of “invitations” through the prism of the heritage of east-west philosophy, there is an aim not to shelter oneself from the Eurocentric western theory of International Relations (IR), but rather to provide an opportunity to think about building a “post-Western” project, or otherwise a project based on the union between man and world (in Tajik-Persian, odam va olam).

This article belongs to the body of imageological studies dealing with mutual perceptions of nations, communities and cultures as well as the idea of “Other”. The main topic is the evolution of attitude to the West in the works of Swami Vivekananda, who was a social and religious figure on the cusp of XIX – XX centuries and an ideologist of Indian nationalism. It is widely known that roots of the actual social and political thought in India go back to the period of colonialism. With the status of one of the most influential thinkers in modern India and attention paid to the legacy of Vivekananda by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his case appears to be of a considerable importance. Vivekananda spent years in America and Europe, establishing contacts and promoting Indian culture. He used it as a “soft power” to draw attention of the West to the national liberation struggle just starting to unfold in India. So the research goal is to trace the transformation of Swami Vivekananda’s attitude to the West and find out how its picture after the author’s close acquaintance with Western countries is different from the one in his earlier works. In this context the research focuses on his travel writings created while in the West as well as back in India. In addition to a number of traditional means of research, i.e. historical genitival and historical comparative, content analysis and discourse analysis are also employed. The result of the research says for a rather significant devaluation of the West in Swami Vivekananda’s eyes. His views develop from an enthusiastic, optimistic expectation of Western help in the struggle against British colonialism to the realization that the declining West, torn by interstate differences on the verge of a great war, is not willing to provide an active support to the Indian people, notwithstanding its interest to the Indian civilization. So his last works present evident criticisms of the West and appreciation of India as the source of moral integrity, which the West is devoid of and which is vital for a further development of the mankind.

The article investigates experience of the Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer and Russian aircraft companies UAC and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCA) in development and sales of regional jets. Analysis of the Embraer’s ERJ-145 and E-Jet projects and the SCA-UAC ‘Sukhoi Superjet’ (SSJ-100) project is based on sectoral innovation approach which examines sectoral industrial development from the point of view of co-evolution of companies, technologies, demand dynamics and regulative norms and institutions as key elements of sectoral system of innovation (SSI). Revealing the most important features of evolution of the modern commercial aerospace sector such as high rate of innovation, R&D and subcontracting along the supply chain, development of new technologies, system-integration role of the leading global aircraft companies, outsourcing the production of major subsystems, liberalization of the regulative mechanisms and some others, the author demonstrates with the examples of the Brazilian and Russian cases how these changes were reflected in national sectoral systems of innovation of Brazil and Russia. The comparative research is based on such SSI parameters as efficiency of technological changes, accounting of changes in demand and in industry’s regulatory mechanisms, development of connections with suppliers, efficiency of investments, andorganization of sales. The research concludes that failures in realization of the SSJ-100 project were due less to negative consequences of the anti-Russian sanctions on aviation industry, than to some features of sectoral systems of innovation including those related to project management and mechanisms of funding. In contrast to the Embraer – a company that has managed to implement a state-of-the-art design and manufacturing system, achieved better balance between military and civil aircraft programs, successfully adopted foreign experience in coinvestment, risk-sharing partnerships and clusters, thus proving to be an effective system integrator, – the UAC and SCA achieved comparatively smaller progress in the above areas. Together with features of SSI other reasons of it include some mistakes of theSSJ-100 business strategy such as delays in design and certification processes, some technological imperfections of the airliner and therefore insufficient quantity of fixed supply arrangements with large foreign airlines, problems with investments, purchases of the equipment, deliveries of components and in other spheres of international cooperation, deficiencies of the after-sales service.

Book Review: Bulavin A.V., Karpovich O.G., Manoilo A.V., Mantusov V. B. World politics. Advanced lines and red lines. Moscow: RIO Russian customs Academy, 2018. 456 p.

The article presents a detailed review of the monograph “World politics. Front lines and red lines”. The author assesses the nature and content of the influence of the main participants in the system of international relations, both individual States and non-state actors, including transnational corporations on the state and prospects of development of world politics. Directions of adjustment of the foreign policy strategy of Russia in the conditions of aggravation of a situation and reanimation of hostile anti-Russian course from a number of participants of world political process are defined.

Book under review: «The concept of future appearance of power components of the military organization in the Russian Federation» edited by S.R. Tsyrendorzhiyev. 46th Central research Institute of the Ministry of defense of Russia, 2018. 521 p.

The book under review is a collective monograph edited by S.R. Tsirendorzhiev, B.V. Kuroedov, A.O. Medin, O.V. Sandarov, V.L. Gladyshevskii, E.V. Gorgol, R.S. Belorosov, S.V. Brezgin, A.S. Zheltukhin and M.V. Timofeyev. The monograph is devoted to the justification of longterm appearance of force components of the military organization in the Russian Federation.

Book under review: “Normal’naya Anomiya” v Rossii i Sovremennom Mire [Normal Anomie In Russia And Modern World]. Ed. S.A. Kravchenko. Moscow: MGIMO-University, 2017. (In Russian). 281 p.

The reviewed publication features a new comprehensive approach to grasp current complexities of the modern society by developing the conception of normal anomie. Authors contribute to reveal the nature of normal anomie as a dispersion of norms and values which entails a permanent reproduction and proliferation of risks and uncertainties in all spheres of human activity. In the provided review, normal anomie is addressed in reference to its common and distinctive features compared with classical sociological conceptions of societal and normative disorganization found in the works o such preeminent scholars as E. Durkheim, R.K. Merton, G. Bataille et al.