The article is devoted to the issue of Japan policy in South-East Asia specifically to Japanese diplomacy within ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). ARF created in 1994 was the first multilateral forum were regional security issues of Southeastern countries could be discussed. Japan took part in creation of the Forum and is its active participant. Since mid 90th Japanese diplomacy used ASEAN Regional Forum platform to promote its own national security interests in addition to other bilateral and multilateral activities. One of the first subjects for discussion at ARF was China nuclear activity and nuclear tests. The issues of constant concern remain territorial disputes in East China Sea and South China Sea. Specific regional topics like China-Taiwan relations, Cambodia, ideas for Northeastern Asian security forum, India and Pakistan nuclear tests, Asian financial crisis of the 90th were also in focus of ARF discussions. Annual sessions of the Forum gave Japan opportunity to articulate concerns, promote its interests and negotiate topics on bilateral level. Of vital security concern for Japan was and remains to exist North Korean nuclear program. For the last two decades the country took a great activity in the work of ASEAN Regional Forum and it could be stated that ARF remains to be an important mechanism for Japan diplomacy to address important issues security and stability in Southeastern Asia.

The author examines the legacy of two great Christian thinkers, the American Reinhold Niebuhr and the Italian Giorgio La Pira. Reinhold Niebuhr was a protestant theologian and political adviser to the Council of Foreign Relations and George Kennan’s Policy Planning Staff. The Mayor of Florence, Giorgio La Pira was a Dominican tertiary and professor of Roman law; he was a prominent Italian statesman and one of the fathers of the Italian Constitution. During the Cold War period both played a significant role in influencing public opinion, both proved to be among most influential religious thinkers of the 20th century. The author analyzes their views on international relations, in particularly on the western policy towards the Soviet Union, the use of nuclear weapons, the war in Vietnam and the communist issue. The legacy of the two thinkers is highly topical in front of the ethical dimension of choices in international politics today. Therefore the names of Christian thinkers are back again to the fore. It is worth noting that President Obama cites Niebuhr as one of his favorite philosophers. In an interview with «The New York Times» Obama felt it necessary to emphasize the Niebuhr's idea that there is “a real evil, fatigue and pain in the world, and one should be careful and modest in his belief of being able to eliminate these things. Nevertheless, we should not use it as an excuse for cynicism and inaction”. European observers and scholars also admit that Obama is following the thought of Niebuhr, who was demythologizing the idea of America as a visible place of the Kingdom of God». Niebuhr was well aware of the limitations of all humane schemes. Giorgio La Pira was aware as well that politics should always base on ethical principles and reflect the existing spiritual, cultural, political and economic diversity. His main purpose was the formation of a new hierarchy of values. Just like Reinhold Niebuhr, Giorgio La Pira, reflecting on key events of the 20th century, looked for a policy based on the precepts of Christianity. Just like Reinhold Niebuhr, La Pira stated the primacy of politics over economics. However there were some differences between the two thinkers. Niebuhr’s ontological pessimism was well known. On the contrary, La Pira was an optimist. He sincerely believed that his personal policy would help mankind to promote the cause of a new world.

The historical roots and the development of external cultural action of France are considered in the article as an attribute of the so called “diplomacy of influence” or “smart power”. The traditionally important place of culture in the French foreign policy is underlined as a part of its strategy aimed at increasing its global influence. The worth of both the history and the culture of France- homeland of the Enlightenment, freethinking and Declaration of Human Rights- keeps, no doubts, a honourable place not only in the European but in the world storehouse of spiritual values. However, if the splendour and attractiveness of the French culture succeeded to tide over the reverses of times, it happened first of all owing to a streamlined cultural policy pursued through ages by ruling circles of this country –from luminous monarchs to modern presidents. In that sense the cultural policy as a target oriented action by the State aimed at the preservation and protection of national cultural particularity is a purely French “invention”, a phenomena which takes its roots in the depths of the national history and maintains its continuity through centuries. Up to now, France remains unique among the developed countries with its thoroughly elaborated and diligently carried on cultural policy leaned on a strong organisational machinery. The facts taken from many latest foreign publications illustrate the narration.

Procedure of an economic and political situation current through the situation at the world oil market
forecasting is offered in the article. The compact mathematical model of cycling market fluctuations is the basis of the
technique. The model allows splitting changes in market conditions caused by the economic and political reasons.
This makes it possible to present the dynamics of the situation as the sum of two components, which are economically
and politically induced. The model provides a forecast of the market economic components. These components
forecast are made on the basis of world energy, economic and political situation scenarios. Retrospective analysis
of relationship of economic conditions and political processes and how market conditions affect the economic and
political situation in the world in the past helps scenarios development. The results of techniques using for time and
characters of next world crisis are presented in the article.

A huge wave of mass protests for the last years has lead to a collapse of many longstanding traditional regimes in some Arab states (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen). In other states (Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Morocco) a serious aggravation of political situation occurred. Many experts in Russia as well as abroad share an opinion that the phenomenon of the “Arab revolution" or the so cold "Arab Spring" has the same basic pattern: after the beginning of unrest in North Africa and the Middle East the Islamist political parties, organizations and groups are gaining strength, popularity and influence. The main content of the article is focused on the analysis of religious, political, socio-economic and other aspects of the contemporary ideology and practice of the radical Islam, its threats and challenges. The current situation in the region has favored the creation of a new political alliance in the Greater Middle East. Now the US administration's policy in the Middle East is aimed at the advancement of the of the radical Islam front to Iran, North Caucasus region and Central Asia. This policy corresponds to the global strategic interests of the U.S. regional partners including Petro-Islamic States, Turkey and even Israel. Analyzing the situation around Syria the author notes that the steps undertaken by the members of the new regional alliance to eliminate B. Assad - another victim of the "Arab Spring" – can, first of all, aggravate an extremely unstable situation in Syria, and, secondly, create a real perspective of the radical Islam advancement right up to the borders of the Russian Federation.

The article evaluates the impact of domestic political regional imbalance and inter-elite divisions of Ukraine in its choice of guidelines for integration. The main sphere of Ukrainian economy is controlled by more than ten financial industrial groups that actively lobby their interests in the policy. The Ukrainian elite is far from establishing the optimal balance between “Western” and “Eastern” vectors of integration cooperation. We believe that the reduction of tension between «Western» and «Eastern» vectors of integration policy of Ukraine in the short term is unlikely. Apparently, the choice in favour of rapprochement with the EU has already been made. But the peculiarity of this choice is the lack of completeness, the more that the question of who and in what volume will be able to sponsor a «European path» of the Ukrainian elite remains open

Ten years anniversary of the Department of European Integration in the MGIMO-University gives an opportunity to sum up Department’s achievements and to define the place of the Department in the Russian academic school of European integration studies. The paper consists of three parts. The first presents history the national school of European Integration Studies, since the department of the European Integration in MGIMO-University is an integral part of this scientific school. Authors identify four periods: the formation period (1957 - 1962), the Soviet period of academic research (1962 - 1985), the Russian period within the framework of growing national and international contacts between researchers (1986 - 2000) and the current period, which is characterized by an integrated research environment and a system of university teaching (since early 2000s). The second part describes the process of establishing of the Department and its teaching methods, based on a multidisciplinary approach, strong interplay between teaching and research and integration into the global environment. Authors outline the process of preparation of the first Russian university textbook on European integration, describe its concepts and present opinions of the referees. The third part provides an overview of research activities of the Department and points at main published monographs.

The second challenging period (after the «eurosclerosis» of the 70-th) in the history of European integration has been going on for eight years. Measures taken by the EU institutions prevented the disintegration of the euro area, but the crisis is not over. We distinguish its four main consequences for the integration: 1) growing federalization of the euro zone, 2) a switch from multi-speed to a two- or three-tier integration model, 3) economization of decision-making process in the euro area, and 4) clearer demarcation of borders within the EU and with its neighbours. The rotation in the ECB Governing Council that may start in 2015, is likely to consolidate the leadership of the "hard core" countries in the decisionmaking process. Further communitarization of the economic part of the EMU makes it more difficult for newcomers to join the euro area and practically closes this window of opportunity for the Great Britain. The crisis revealed the objective limits of EU enlargement, the accession of Turkey became hardly realistic, as well as the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine. The return to a sustainable development of the EU countries requires deep modernization of the European economy and society. However, the ways of this modernization has not been determined yet. It is clear that further accumulation of wealth and growing consumption cannot be a solution. The headline targets and indicators of the "Europe 2020" strategy will be implemented only partially. Modernization process will be hampered by the lack of funding for basic science, which occurred due to the end of the "cold war", as well as social factors whose role in the economic progress had been previously underestimated. Upgrading the EU integration strategy will be possible after the elections to the European Parliament and the appointment of the new Commission in 2014.

The article analyses development of external energy policy of the European Union (EU). In spite of the Lisbon treaty didn’t substantially expend EU powers in external energy policy, European Commission (EC) became more active in recent years. Decision on exchange of information about bilateral energy agreements between Member States (MSs) and third countries may deprive producers of opportunity to differentiate terms of infrastructure projects and energy supply in different MSs. European Commission participation in MSs negotiations with third countries as a guardian of energy market provisions will inevitably increase negotiation power of MSs. Nevertheless, only smooth and modest extension of powers of the EC would be possible because of opposition of numerous countries which makes a search of consensus very difficult. Among priority activities of the EU external energy policy one could identify ‘export’ of energy market provisions in neighbor countries; diversification of suppliers and prioritization of politically selected supply routes; dramatic increase of regulatory activity at EU level. All these activities are partially successful, but they all have some shortages. Several EU legislative and regulatory measures risk to run counter to existing obligations of MSs.

Regulation of capital outflows has become an important task for the Russian economic policy. Such regulation needs the real picture of the Russian outward foreign direct investment (FDI) geography without distortions by official statistics with its data on indirect FDI via offshores. The article is based on new empirical FDI data collected by the author. This information shows the dominance of Wider Europe in the Russian outward FDI geography. The regional character of many Russian multinationals can be explained by several key factors, including the importance of market-seeking FDI motives, Russian oligarchs’ attempts at increasing their bargaining power and relatively comfortable business climate of neighboring countries in combination with the lack of experience and weak state support of Russian investors abroad. At the end of the article, some measures for regulation of FDI outflows are offered for diversification of the Russian outward FDI geography. Russian companies need information and institutional support which is a crucial type of incentives for initial stages of their investment projects abroad. Bilateral investment and double taxation treaties are main measures of institutional support. State insurance of investments is a key element of support for mature projects abroad.

On the basis of analysis of integration processes between Nordic, Benelux countries and post-soviet states in Europe the author expresses hesitations in accepting the integration experiences gained by the EU as the criterion of efficiency and the pattern for the post-Soviet space. He does not consider that an involvement of all countries with market economy into processes of regional integration, if they do not try to achieve certain political aims through integration, is the universal regularity in the globalized world. In these cases neither free trade zones nor custom unions can be considered as integration stages, but they continue to be the tools for further development of trade. The author proposes to assess the EU evolution with regard to the legal norms of international organizations, where state sovereignty of members is strengthened, not given up to supernational bodies. In case the idea of reestablishment of an unified state on the remains of the former USSR, linked to the necessity to hand over the recently acquired sovereignty to it, is laid down to the ground for practical measures of integration, this kind of integration will hardly be attractive to the potential post-Soviet participants. This perspective is hardly desired for Russia either. The integration path of the EU reflects the peculiarities of the European situation and specific interests of its member states. Many details of the EU activity are not applicable to other integration groupings in Europe and membership criteria in every of them is not universal. Any efforts to construct integration processes in the post-Soviet space in accordance to the EU model without proper consideration to integration experiences of other countries and to political, economic, social, cultural, demographic, military peculiarities of the countries concerned seem to be not acceptable and founded.

The latest cycle of the European Union enlargement generated a panoply of problems unknown of in the anamnesis of this organisation. Specific historic experience of the applicants pre-determined a considerable specialty of west-European fashioned democratic regimes in those countries, weakness of consensus and tolerance culture which has already rooted itself in the West-European society, and which has to a considerable degree secured stable development of Western Europe over the last decades. This constellation resulted particularly in the renaissance on the level of European establishment of the nationalist phobia and memories deeply buried decades ago. Though the scale of the eventual problems was evident to the EU leaders long before the official entry of Central and East-European (CEE) countries to the European Union, it neither blocked the admission of new members nor entailed a refusal to pursue the plans of further enlargement at the time when Brussels’ fears have panned out. The paradox is predetermined by the combination of the EU motives – common interests of the integration group with the interests both of individual members and outside actors.

The articles deals with the initial design failures of the European and Monetary Union which could have lead to the current sovereign debt crisis of some of its member-states. It touches upon issues such as the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas, economic imbalances and situation with the public finances within the EU. The EU makes efforts to implement new initiatives which could prevent the euro area from future crises while debates remain on the best possible options. These initiatives imply not only deepening of economic integration but also of a political one. Under these circumstances reaching a consensus in EU- 27 becomes quite a challenging process and different groupings of countries might appear and this can even more complicate decision-making and functioning of the EU. While the outcome of the reforms is still to be seen in the future, some macroeconomic indicators show that real adjustment process has started in the periphery countries due to urgent measures taken at the EU level. Nonetheless the latter ones have not yet generated what is necessary for a sustained way out of the crisis.

This article examines U.S. efforts to build a broad international coalition in the area of missile defense. The basic formats of military cooperation with foreign countries in the deployment of the U.S. global missile defense system are described, as well as the principles of cooperation on the part of the United States. A review of the regional missile defense systems created by the United States as an intermediate step on the way to a global missile defense system is provided. Particular emphasis is placed on the implementation of The Phased Adaptive Approach for Missile Defense in Europe (European Phased Adaptive Approach, EPAA) and the creation of Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD). Specified milestones and activities under the program, as well as the practical difficulties faced by the U.S. and European countries to deploy missile defense in the context of the global economic crisis are analyzed.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the role and significance of the transparency and confidencebuilding measures (TCBMs) in respect to outer space activities. The article examines the TCBMs role in international legal instruments and peculiarities of their elaboration and implementation in the sphere of space activities security. Historical aspects as well as the significance of the issue promotion for creating the conditions allowing to ensure the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space are anylized. The article contains the prognosis of a possible outcome of the UN Group of governmental experts work on TCBMs in outer space activities. The Russian experts continue now work on generalization and classification of concrete MTDK in the form of the draft of the catalog of measures for ensuring transparency and trust in space activity. In case of its realization it could become a component of the researches presented to the report of the Secretary general to General Assembly at its sixty eighth session in pursuance of the resolution 65/68 8 of December, 2010. Such catalog would be the systematized arch of TCBMs intended for use in the international practice on a voluntary basis. It could contain the main data on TCBMs: to their structure on a target orientation; categories MTDK; the information passport of each measure – the name, mission, the contents, scope of application, a format, a procedure, the questions which decision is necessary for its realization; possible forms of use of TCBMs on a unilateral, bilateral and multilateral basis by means of the corresponding mechanisms and the procedures being a subject of coordination between the states, expressed desire to use TCBMs in relation to the space activity.

International and political aspects of the Internet development are analyzed in the article. The Internet is a key infrastructure of the emerging global information society. Based on the works by respected information society scholars, the effects of the Internet growth for international relations and world politics are generalized. Networked organization, transnational nature, accessibility and openness of the Internet contribute to the processes of globalization and trans-nationalization, increase international cooperation, and penetrability of state borders. Segmentation and marginalization of the societies is the response to the fast growth in the volumes of information available throughout the world. State borders, geographical divisions amplify new lines of divides in the information realm. Authoritarian states, such as China, Myanmar, Burma, Pakistan, filter information with the help of big internet companies, such as Yahoo and Google. Internet companies wish to gain access to the fast growing markets of these countries and thus are ready to provide authorities the confidential information of the users and block access to certain internet sites. Internet creates new divide between “information-wealthy” and “information-poor”, which is the source of the new contradiction on the international arena. New forms of international conflicts, including information war, network wars, hacker attacks etc. are one of the negative results of the fast internet and information technologies development.At the same time development of information technology poses new challenges to international and national security, which can only be reduced through collective efforts of the international community.

In article it is shown, that the continued technological and content revolution in the means of mass communication in a number of key indicators complicates the interaction of the participants of international relations, and «information of the press» is of special importance in the modern international relations is the priority, which gives all grounds to attribute the information to the category of factors that determine the fundamental social change in the modern world. Possibilities of modern information society is not always amenable to precise forecast, the action of politicians and international organizations. The Internet space is gradually becoming the main actor in international relations, and one of the most unpleasant aspects of this process is the loss of the information society sustainability. These and other circumstances dictate the need to generate adequate effective state policy of counteraction to cyber terrorism and the development of the new «intellectual technologies» and software tools to control the «dark-web» and analysis of social networks. Social stability of the States will increasingly depend on the correct use of information where it is needed most in this political moment. In article it is shown that the information support of foreign policy and international relations of the stands in one row with such priority issues of world policy as non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, restriction and prohibition of weapons of mass destruction, settlement of regional conflicts and peace-making, strengthening of comprehensive security, the preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of human rights.

The managerial importance of the internet increasingly attracts political forces. The article deals with the internet as a political resource referring to President Obama involving the American people in his fight with the Republicans in Congress, and other similar issues of general concern. The author analyses the use of information and communication technologies in the USA political life and also makes conclusions about global tendencies of the information technologies development. After Barack Obama was elected president in the USA, information technologies have gained political significance. The author believes that Obama plans his second term in power as a turning point for the development of the country which is connected to the economic development. USA political strategy is global; the same is true for the information sphere. Barack Obama influences global politics as if it were operation system of the computer. Thus the author believes that such problems as determination of the driving forces of the Arab spring and real reasons for the USA refusal to sign new telecommunications treaty at the ITU conference in Dubai deserve special analysis taking into account the role of the information and communication technologies.

The author examines specific characteristics and prospects for the development of TV and the Internet as two major channels of media-manipulation. The emphasis is put on the impact of these channels of information on public political consciousness. Television and internet seem to be antagonistic. Internet is based on iterative communication and feedback, and allows both producing and receiving information. Television is a one way channel of communication and it doesn’t support feedback, it allows only receiving information. The author believes that internet is gaining significant influence and it’s going to transform in the future due to the evolution of the means of control of the citizens behavior and attitudes by governments as well as new possibilities it offers to citizens to oppose information manipulations of authorities. Still, internet is not universally available, which deteriorates its potential as an instrument of political influence. In the foreseeable future the television will remain the most important means of communication and will significantly shape the political preferences of citizens, although its’ role will gradually decrease. At present internet hasn’t replaced television in Russia as high speed internet is not available for every family in Russia.

In this article on the basis of documentary evidence and memories of the participants of the events shows, what was the sentiments in the summer of 1945, after the victory over Germany, when the Soviet troops departed from Europe to the far East, to participate in the war with Japan, and how the Soviet command solved a difficult problem - to mobilize for perform the new military tasks people who were weary up to the limit from years of war, dreamed of a speedy return to their families and relatives on. Also review the features of the preparation for a new war veterans of European fights and “dalnevostochny stays”, with the consideration of rich combat experience of the first category of servicemen and better knowledge of the natural-climatic conditions of the forthcoming theatre of war the second category. In article analyzes massive army representation of the Japanese as a military rival and their correspondence to reality. Underestimation of the enemy in the first days of the war led to a “criminal carelessness” and losses, so the commanders had to strengthen explanatory work with staff about insidiousness of the enemy and vigilance increase. The bitterness of the fighting shows in widespread phenomenon of “kamikaze bombers. Special attention is paid to violations of the Japanese party norms of international law, the laws and customs of war. In conclusion it is shown that the military campaign of the Soviet army in the far East not only hasten the end of the Second world war and provided a new balance of strategic forces in the postwar world, but also contributed to the eventual eradication of complex of a defeated country, inherited from tsarist Russia.

Presently in collective consciousness there was a steady perception of Spain as the safe state entering into group of the countries, being a support of the European integration. The impression was made that Spain, despite difficulties of its historical development, at last found the national identity, having created from regions and national lands making it the new multicultural community fastened in a whole by a tolerant, educated and authoritative monarchy. However the world economic crisis which has begun in 2008 destroyed the Spanish idyll, having aggravated old and having generated new contradictions. Traditionally painful problem for Spain was existence of centrifugal tendencies at the heart of which two main reasons lay: manifestations of the nationalism peculiar to those areas where Catalan, Basque and Galician nationalities historically lived, and a regionalism caused by aspiration of local elite to bigger distance from Madrid. Considering features of pre-Roman history of Spain, the author seeks to understand, whether sources of modern separatism can originate in an extreme antiquity. Following the results of research the conclusion is drawn that most boldly "link of times" is traced on the example of Basques, the part of which intellectual elite seeks to use features of origin and historical development of these people for a reinforcement of current nationalist and separatist trends. The author considers that the history has to serve as the bridge between the people, instead of put up between them a new wall.

The article is devoted to the changes in the configuration of the modern state. The author analyzes the world and domestic experience in the governance reform, determining the content, the main direction, reform technology. The article concerns the theoretical models that have become the basis of governance reform. An informative and functional aspects of governance reforms are considered in the context of modern approaches to the state functions. Considering the results of the governance reform, it should be taken into account that the implementation of these reforms was accompanied by a number of costs. In this regard, a number of experts, including experts from the World Bank, who prepared the materials for the Government Commission on lessons learned from reforms NPM, present restrained assessment of the reform results in various countries, noting their ambiguity and limited scope in relation to the objectives. "Undoubtedly, there are many examples of concrete improvements in certain specific services or in ministries and other organizations in each specific case. However, data on the overall impact of the reforms is very little ... Generally there is no accurate data on the actual results achieved by the majority of implemented reforms... In many cases ... there is difference of opinion about the results of the reform programs "[6, p. 74-75, 36, 40, 47, 78, 82-83, 92].

The processes of globalization have determined significant changes in the prerogatives of nation states. In the twenty-first century the state no longer acts as a sole subject having a monopoly of integrating the interests of large social communities and representing them on the world stage. An ever increasing role in the global political process is played by transnational and supranational participants. However, despite the uncertainty and ambiguity of the ways of the development of the modern world, it can be argued that in the foreseeable future it is the states that will maintain the role of the main actors in world politics and bear the responsibility for global security and development. All this naturally makes urgent the issues related to the search for optimal models of nation state development. The article analyzes approaches to understanding patterns, problems and prospects of the development of this institution existing in modern political science. These include the concept of "dimensionality" based on the parameters of scale (the size of the territory) of the states and their functions in the international systems, as well as the "political order". In the latter case the paper analyzes four models: the nation-state, statenation, consociation, quasi-state. The author's position consists in the substantiation of the close dependence of the success of a model of the state on its inner nature, i.e. statehood. On the basis of the elaborated approach the author understands statehood as "the result of historical, economic, political and foreign policy activity of a particular society in order to create a relatively rigid political framework that provides spatial, institutional and functional unity, that is, the condition of the society’s own state, national political system." Thus statehood acts as a qualitative feature of the state.

The article deals with ethnic and religious problems of modern Yemen. Based on the analysis of the main barriers between Yemeni societies, the author assesses the political and economic basis of separatist tendencies in the country. In the prospective part of the article the author examines the possible development of disintegration tendencies in the country. The Republic of Yemen is noted for severity and variety of domestic political, sectarian, clan challenges that still manages to soften, but are capable to split the country and lead to the establishment on its territory of the new states in the near future. Despite the fact that the change in top state leadership in Yemen after the "Arab Spring" was held on the softer model compared with Libya or Syria scenario, the transition period is not crowned with the stabilization of the political and economic situation and the onset of systemic reform. The most favorable scenario - the successful completion of a conference on National dialogue involving the main political parties and movements. This is not an easy task, given the negative attitude to this idea of the South Peace Movement and the Movement of al-Husi who are deeply involved in the conflict. Maintaining the status quo - the continuation of the armed conflict in Yemen and growth of base for international terrorism. The negative scenario - the territorial disintegration of the country. In this case, the possible are establishment of two states - South Yemen and North Yemen, as well as creation of an independent state in northern border areas adjacent to Saudi Arabia. The vast majority of the southern Yemeni officials until recently argued for its separation. Decentralization on the basis of the federal state. Separatist tendencies are gaining strength, but as a compromise the creation of a federal state should be considered. The implementation of this option is only possible as a result of peaceful national reconciliation, as well as with external support.

The article focuses on the political consequences of corruption in government. The author analyzes the foreign and domestic experience in the fight against corruption. At the turn of the twentyfirst century the problem of corruption in the government of national states is attracting continuous international attention with the increasing role of interstate agencies and transnational actors in the struggle against it. The article discusses government corruption in the making as a global contemporary problem, proves the need for closer international cooperation to succeed in fighting against it. Political will of state’s leadership and successful functioning of the civil society institutions guarantee the adoption and consistent implementation of comprehensive anti-corruption programs. Special attention is paid to the method of determining the level of corruption in state. The author proposes a set of measures, which will improve the effectiveness of the fight against corruption.

The article represents an attempt to analyze the contemporary theoretical framework of energy security research as part of international relations and foreign policy studies. Neorealism and neoliberalism are the key theoretical schools having the strongest impact on energy security research. Authors inspired by the neorealist approach, including J. Russell, D. Moran and M.Clare, insist on the role of individual state actors that seek to maximize their energy supply or their position as an energy exporter. The key areas of study of the neorealist school include military aspects of energy security and resource nationalism. The neoliberal framework, represented by such scholars as A. Goldthau and J.M.Witte, focuses on the role of institutions, international cooperation and liberal markets. Unlike neorealists, neoliberals believe that global energy markets provide the necessary conditions for the peaceful cooperation of all players. Constructivist approaches represent an interesting alternative to the “neo-neo” debate, but still remain marginal. Although proponents of neorealist and neoliberal frameworks disagree on several key points, a large number of scholars, both in Russia and abroad, prefer a combined approach based on elements on neorealist and neoliberal theories. The combined analytical framework is used by such leading Western researchers as D.Yergin, J. Stanislaw, A.Korin and G.Luft, as well as many Russian scholars, including N.Mironov, S.Zhiznin and Y.Borovsky.

In article the analysis of foreign policy of Turkey during 2002-2012 in Africa is given. The special attention is paid to use of "the soft force" as main instrument of strengthening of influence of Turkey on the African continent. Problems and prospects of formation of Turkey as the leading player in Africa are considered. The integrated approach to cooperation is effective way of consolidation of positions of Turkey in Africa. In addition, that fact has impact on strengthening of influence of Turkey in Tropical Africa that the countries of this region never were under sovereignty of Turkey, so have no joint negative historical experience. Moreover, large volumes of humanitarian assistance and lack of any pressure from Turkey allow the African countries to feel grateful to the partner, but not restrained or obliged to it. Such approach allows to create favorable climate in the bilateral and multilateral relations and to strengthen trust.

The article identifies and discloses the problems of national minorities living on the territory of the Istrian peninsula with access to the Adriatic Sea and the region Venezia Giulia. It must be stressed that the population of Istria just over the past century four times "changed citizenship", having been in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia- FPRY (later - the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - SFRY), and, finally, the People`s and the Socialist Republic of Croatia. It is shown that all of these political changes in different periods strongly influenced mentality of the population, especially in matters relating to the treatment of national minorities. Consequently, the composite structure of the population of Istria and Venezia Giulia with time has undergone profound changes: Latinized ethnolinguistic group assimilated by Slavic population, but subsequently was different from the Slovenes and Croats. Before the First World War, these territories were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and there lived the Italians, Croats and Slovenes. After the war and the collapse of the empire the region became part of the Kingdom of Italy. New problems arose at the end of the Second World War, when most of the Istria and Venezia Giulia was under the control of the newly established Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. As a result, after the break-up of the federation of Yugoslavia and the formation of autonomous and independent states - former republics including Croatia, the status of national minorities have separate national and cultural groups, where Italians as an autochthonous national minorities enjoyed the status of the privileged minority.

The article deals with privatization in Russia’s energy sector with a special focus on a recent purchase of the private TNK-BP by the state-owned Rosneft. The author analyses the past, present and future privatization deals related to the Russian oil, gas and power generation industry as compared to accumulated international experience. For instance, the article displays the ways the Norwegian, Brazilian, French and British authorities privatized national strategic energy assets. The study presented in the article also aims to find out key advantages and disadvantages of state or private ownership in the Russian and global energy industry. For example, it sheds light on some considerable achievements of the Russian state-controlled companies in oil production amid a widespread belief that more than a decade-long growth in the Russian oil industry is due only to private firms that were created in the 1990s. Additionally, the state-controlled Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil that shows strong operational and financial results on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and abroad is also in the spotlight of the current study. In line with the mentioned takeover of TNK-BP the author examines outcomes of the reorganization of RAO UES of Russia (the dismantled Russian electric power monopoly) that was seen as a massive privatization of the national power industry. Moreover, the study presents two groups of interests prevailing in the Russian government and energy business to give an outlook on the Russian energy industry.

In economy of a number of foreign countries alternatively privatizations of objects, the publicprivate partnership (PPP) concept is widely applied. Interaction of the state and business is characteristic feature of modern mixed economy. The specified partnership is realized with use of diverse models and can accept various forms. The task consists in choosing such form (a legal ground of realization of concrete model) at which PPP will be the most rational and effective. The leasing possessing financial, investment, organizational and operational, service, practical and other advantages, represents one of the most acceptable PPP forms, for realization in modern conditions of domestic economy. The specified advantages of the parties of the contract of leasing and its fundamental difference from the rent, being that when leasing the private sector, entering partnership with the state, not only applies administrative skills, but also invests the capital, are preconditions for its widespread introduction. At the same time, as a whole positive dynamics of development of the market of leasing in the Russian Federation has no steady character. The situation can be broken if return of invested funds is guaranteed to the investor (including foreign) and it will have an opportunity to profit. As the option of a solution is offered to apply non-standard approaches at implementation of leasing operations, in particular - with scoring use. It is necessary to emphasize that application of scoring most effectively when the leasing market is on lifting and demanded there is an efficiency of an assessment of the project and a standart of procedures, and the speed of service of the participants of the leasing contract plays one of leading roles. This advantage, becomes a shortcoming at the current situation in the market when more weighed assessment of risks is required, and for this reason skoring models demand continuous completion and updating with frequency of times in one and a half-two years. Leasing application as the PPP forms, not only the professional experience, effective management, flexibility and efficiency in decision-making will provide, ability to innovation, but also will provide serious investment activity. It in turn will allow to introduce new equipment and more effective technologies, to create the new enterprises, on a labor market to increase demand for highly skilled workers.

According to the experts of PricewaterhouseCoopers Company, hotel segment in Russia in 2013 year is about to develop and increase sales, despite crisis preconditions and an ambiguous economic situation in the world. The innovative hotel concept is one of the most popular subjects among hotel real es-tate developers and hotel operators. Indeed the innovative hotel concept is an additional way of promoting hotel services. Leading international and Russian engineers acquire experience in creating a unique hotel concept: both in premium and economy class. The article describes such forms of innovative hotel concepts as business and design hotels, capsule hotels, budget hotels, «Women only» hotels. The author of the article studies key aspects of the international approach «the blue way» to the hotel industry. If the building is environment-oriented and fulfills all the requirements for economy and functionality, it represents an example of this complete and balanced approach.

Large-scale improvement is in store for the European financial regulators. Reforms are being carried out at the supranational level of the European Union whereas the national legislation of the EU member-states is being refined. Similarly, the system of financial regulation in the Russian Federation is about to change prompting creation of a mega-regulator for the financial market on the basis of the RF Central Bank to be launched in August of 2013 with the regulation and supervision shared by the RF Ministry of Finance and Central Bank respectively. As a result, the current regulator, Federal Financial Markets Service, will be abolished with its staff to be employed by the Central Bank. Whether the initiative will be successful depends on a number of factors, among them appropriate application of existing regulation models taking into account the following aspects: participation/non-participation of the market and professional community in the regulation; the subject and the field of regulation. Scrutiny of the European regulators active at the level of the European Union, as well as the national experience of the financial regulators of Luxemburg and Belgium gives a better insight into the prospects of the regulatory reform that is supposed to make the future system intelligible, lucid and self-sufficient, which should be reflected in the underlying legislation.

The article analyzes the stages of constitutional development of the Philippines, the principles and characteristics of the various constitutional acts adopted in the American colonial period and after the country's legal independence. Particular attention is paid to the principles and the specific characteristics of the current constitution of 1987, as well as the constitution of 1935, which was the first basic law, which laid the foundations of western constitutional model and the basic principles characteristic of the constitutions of democratic countries, including progressive for that time legal status of the individual, based on the "Bill of Rights" and directly borrowed from the American constitutional system. The question of the national state of one of the countries in South-East Asia is also analyzed which is of considerable scientific interest in terms of the perception of the Western model of democracy and attempts at planting on alien for these models of socio-economic and political framework. The author mentions how, after the provision of legal independence from the U.S. in 1946, the Philippines went the way of the serious distortion of the principles of "Western democracy". There was a wide gap between the formal democratic constitutional institutions of the Western model and the actual breaking of on the basis of eastern states with traditionally immature social structure, backward productive forces. The author shows that the U.S. attempts to impose its former colony model of American state and legal institutions that would facilitate the establishment of the South- East Asia "window of Western democracy", and could serve as a role model for the layout of other countries, not only in South-East Asia but also in Africa and Latin America, suffered a fiasco.

In article the author analyzes the new vulnerabilities which have arisen as a result of the formation of the complex socium in modern Russian society. It is shown that these vulnerabilities bear with themselves new risks for the functioning of the society and its members. The author argues that self-sufficiency of the Russian society is in real danger. The following vulnerabilities are specifically considered: the dysfunctions of the self-sufficiency of the society; the uncontrollable openness generating specific risks; the complex socium comprising the immanent potential of accidents; the process of complication of the risks; social and cultural dynamics of civilizations, the nature of their interactions; the vulnerabilities for the human capital. The solution of the arisen problems the author seems on the ways of the formation of non-linear and humanistic thinking as an intellectual basis of the Russian cosmopolitan human capital. This thinking proceeds from the acceleration and the complication of the sociocultural dynamics, the interdependent integrity of the mankind. The increasing requirements to the qualitative characteristics of the human capital induce to that at its formation were put and decided not only pragmatic tasks, the aims of the accumulation of the humanistic potential in the human capital. Respectively, the formation of the general strategy of the new stage in development of Russia has to assume the active interaction of political elite with scientific community from which, in turn, the new theoretical and methodological tools, capable to cope with the arisen problems are demanded.

The paper describes some common peculiarities in evolution of the State family politics and policies in Europe since the middle of the XIX century to our days. Неге we define the family policy widely enough as the state activity (ideological, legislative, economic, social) concerning a family. The State family policy has four main dimensions such as demographical, social, gender and existential ones. The analysis of the long-term trends in European family policies made it possible to draw four main periods in its evolution. A set of the main problems, priorities and practices is defined for each period. The article also presents the links between the origin of every new period and the changing families, demographical and social realities. The first period (from the second half of the XIX century till the end of the 1940th) is described as the institutionalization of the European family policy. The main problem of this period is the demographic one. The links between the institutionalization of the European family policy and the changes in family life, demographic and social changes in the boundary of the XIX-XX centuries are shown. The second period (the 1950th) is characterized by the development of the social dimension as a part of the becoming European welfare state. In 1950-s, the main focus in family policies was made on the overcoming of the family poverty. The third period (the 1960th – the end of the 1980th) is characterized by a pluralization of the problems, strategies, measures of family policy under the influence of the differentiation of family structures and styles of family life. The fourth period (from the beginning of the 1990th to the present time) deals with reformatting of the conventional relations of the state and a family in the conditions of a new family, demographic, social and economic European context. The article presents the diversity of the family policy models in the European countries in their connection with the political and ideological factors. Special attention is paid to interdisciplinary scientific family studies which are directed to the practical solution of the modern family problems. It is noted that the European scientific centers for family studies and researches play a significant role in the scientific maintenance of European family policy.

This article analyses the concept “national and cultural worldview” in the size of bilingual communication, examines peculiarities in mass media texts translation. The article establishes important types of divergences between Spanish and Russian worldviews which are relevant for translation, for example: abundance in Spanish mass media texts of specific and exotic national idiomatic units, bright stylistic locutions, figurative expressions, syntactic constructions, text structures which, when used in oral and written speech sound weird and unexpected for Russian native speakers. Spaniards often use words from different spheres of life (sports, medicine, warfare, etc) in political communicative situations. The research finds that the Spanish language tends to actively coin new words and combination patterns of “event” semantics. The article gives examples from Spanish-Russian translations and proposes ways to overcome divergences in the context of the Spanish worldview. The author makes conclusion that the national and cultural distinctions are the fourth reason, besides systems, norms and uses, of differences between languages.

The article deals with the stylistic potential of German syntactic means, their expressive–stylistic and functional–stylistic features. The study sets out to reveal the expressive syntactic means. Disorder of a proper sentence structure makes its expressiveness. In contrast to a «syntactic tension», the article analyses a «syntactic loosening» of a normative sentence structure as a current trend in German syntax, as a source of syntactic expressiveness and the most productive instrument of simplification of a sentence structure. Thus, it assimilates to the structure of the everyday language. Syntactic «loosening» of a normative sentence structure is formed by a simple hypotaxis, a failure of closed–in constructions and a lack of grammatical agreement among sentence parts. The study is carried out in the context of historical dynamics. The renunciation of a difficult multi-stage hypotaxis but using of a simple sentence as block structures leads to expression saving and easily understanding. Each of the blocks has a large amount of information. Parts of the sentence are in the same line and are united with nominal juxtaposition. Their development is closely related to the nominalization trend. The influence of colloquial speech on the literary German and its written form, closing to natural speech lead to the renunciation of closed–in constructions. The author proves that the removal of grammatical structures isn't new for the modern literary German, but it presents the perfectly sound tendency. As a result of this study, there is a conclusion that the modification of the grammatical structure isn't the result of an abrupt shift or radical turn but it is a natural continuation of a dynamic process.

The paper shows that the author of a narrative text might interrupt the course of fictional action to express his view of the situation. The diachronic analysis of English emotive prose proves that the author is always present in the text, be it the 19C, 20C, or the beginning of the 21C. One of the topics of the author’s dialogue with the reader may cover peculiarities of the contemporary world. The problems discussed are very much the same in different time periods. The analysis of English novels shows that authors usually give evaluation of the surrounding world which is far from ideal and which is full of difficulties, obstacles and disappointments. The difference lies in the forms of address of the author to the reader. In the novels of the end of the 18C and the beginning of the 19C the author usually acts as a personage who speaks directly to the reader. That’s why forms of direct address and personal pronouns mark this period. At the end of the 20C – at the beginning of the 21C the author’s comments are more laconic and are usually presented in the form of a maxim. Time shift is characteristic of all time periods discussed.

The article is devoted to the issues of professional language training of the students majoring in International Relations. Conceptual awareness of the future professional activity of a specialist in international relations is presented as a part of the new modern professional training paradigm. It is shown that there are various effective ways of preparing students for intercultural communication in professional discourse in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language. A matter of great importance is to develop for students the conceptotermino- systems in questions of international politics, economics, science and war technologies, humanitarian, ideological and international issues of culture and education. This multisided process is complex, value-determined, social, practically-oriented, culturally focused. The author proposes a system of pedagogical support for this process which is based on the integration of different kinds of educational activity: study, research and social activities. All this should work at different levels, that of an individual, group, department, university, cooperation between universities either within the country or in different countries of the world. The ideas of life-learning education should also be carefully developed in this respect. The importance of the student-centered teaching is shown. The leading role of MGIMO(U) educationalists in the professional language training development is accepted.

The author suggests her own interpretation of goals and objectives of foreign language teaching based on the author’s original conception of mastering a foreign language as a process of bilingual development. At present the practical goal of foreign language teaching is formulated by linguodidactics in terms of competences. The communicative competence is treated as a key concept integrating all other competences. It denotes a subject’s ability to carry out cross-cultural interaction and to use a foreign language as an instrument of such interaction. However, this interpretation of the goals of foreign language teaching does not demonstrate specificity of foreign language learning in comparison with other disciplines studied at school or university. While studying those subjects a student interprets them in terms of her own, monolingual, picture of the world. She does not have to develop notions, which are absent in the native culture. The foreign language is totally different: in order to master it, a student has to step outside the boundaries of her own picture of the world and master a number of new notions and concepts. In other words, a student must become bilingual and bicultural. Otherwise her understanding of the foreign language will remain limited by the conceptual system of the mother tongue, she will not be able to see the proper meanings of the other culture. Therefore the goals and objectives of foreign language teaching should be defined according to regularities of bilingual development. The final goal should not be described as a set of competencies, but as a form of bilingualism. In that case the final goal consists in the student’s achieving the stage of balanced mixed bilingualism which is optimal for professional activity with a foreign language. This involves development in a student of an additional complete mechanism of language command responsible for producing and perceiving speech in the foreign language. Intermediate goals and objectives should be defined by the task of forming each block of the mechanism of foreign language command.