Why does security require to be handled carefully? Can there be too much security? The scholars of the Copenhagen School: O. Wæver and B. Buzan, tackled these questions using the theory of securitization and studying security as a form of social practice. The idea that security should not always be regarded as an absolute good in international politics and threats should not always be objectified is firmly rooted in the constructivist approaches to studying international security. A continuation of these discussions may be found in the theoretical approaches that have been developed for almost fifteen years by the so-called Paris School of international security studies. Unfortunately, one has to admit that although Russian scholars are familiar with these theoretical approaches in general, the existing reviews are still largely superficial. In order to fill this gap, I have attempted to overview and assess the intellectual heritage of the Paris School comprehensively and holistically, turning to the original works of the leading figures within the school: D. Bigo and J. Huysmans. This article continues the series of studies, entirely devoted to the phenomenon of securitization: from the early drafts of the theory towards the modern theoretical concepts.

Some of the notions are introduced into the Russian academic use: “domains of insecurity,” “exceptional securitizing,”“diffuse securitizing.”The article focuses on analyzing the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the Paris School approach in general and the theory of (in)securitization in particular. It gives a detailed review of the authors’ ideas about the “security-insecurity” dialectical nexus and securitization as a political technology.
The final part summarizes the key points and provisions of the Paris School approach in light of its strengths and flaws. I conclude that the Paris School scholars formulated a new theoretical framework of securitization, which is different from the original version of the theory and based on the different logic of security. The proposed approach is valuable for constructive reflection and critical analysis of security practices that are most common in contemporary neoliberal societies of the West.

 The article aims to explore the interplay between economic and strategic reasons, which influenced the oil policy of the French government and business in the 1920s. The author demonstrates the heterogeneity and complexity of this policy the diverse nature of motives and interests behind the different attempts to acquire access to the oil. The French case throws some new light on the role of the “oil factor” in international relations and Great Powers’ politics. The article comprehensively deals with the topics often divided between different fields strategic studies, international political economy, diplomatic history. The author uses French archives to place Paris’ oil policy into the broader context of the French strategy and diplomacy in the first decade after WWI. Additional documents from the British and Russian archives help understand essential aspects of the Anglo-French and FrancoSoviet interactions around the “oil question.” After underlying the new strategic importance of oil, which became evident during WWI, and describing the oil dependence of France from the Anglo-American trusts (“Standard Oil” and “Royal Dutch-Shell”), the author traces the three key aims of the French oil policy. First, to diversify the supplies; second, to acquire control or direct access to the oil sources; and, finally, to consolidate the French business interests with the mediation of the state authorities. French actions in these three directions were interlinked, and they mirrored a specific situation of power and weakness of France after WWI. The article concludes that the strategic and economic reasons were interwoven inside the French oil policy. Though the French authorities perceived the growing strategic importance of oil sharply, they were not prepared to follow the clear étatist economic policy and did not try to make a radical change of the established rules of oil policy both inside the Third Republic and in the relations with “Standard Oil” and “Royal Dutch-Shell.”

Gaullism and Atlanticism in the foreign policy of the Fifth Republic appear as two fundamental but mutually exclusive ideological paradigms that, in various combinations, traditionally determined Paris’s behavior on the international stage. A comparative analysis of the ideological constructions of Gaullism and Atlanticism shows the fundamental reason for the conceptual discrepancy between the two doctrines. Gaullism calls on France to preserve its status as a world power at any cost. Atlanticism serves the geostrategic purpose of maintaining American military and political control over Europe. For this reason, Atlanticism does not recognize any other world powers within the Western universe but the United States.

A retrospective view of the Gaullist and Atlanticist interaction reveals a steady trend towards a gradual shift of the Fifth Republic from Charles de Gaulle’s diplomacy principles. This trend led to the beginning in 2007 of a new era of the absolute dominance of Atlanticism in French foreign policy compared with the post-war period of the Fourth Republic.

The advent of this era was marked by a significant improvement in France’s relations with the United States and NATO and increasing French activism on the track of Euro-federalist integra-tion, but, in general, by the perceptible banalization of France’s voice in international affairs.

The results of this study help build future relations between Russia and France. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, affecting all socio-economic and political spheres. Over two years of the pandemic, numerous studies have examined many of its aspects. However, there is no comprehensive understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and will still affect world politics.

The article's research question is: how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected world politics in general? The article To understand the world political consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the following parameters were analyzed: 1) the impact of the pandemic on the (mega)trends of world political development globalization / de-globalization, integration/ disintegration, democratization / de-democratization, 2) the political organization of the world, which includes three primary levels: a) the principles of the Westphalian system, the main of which is the principle of sovereignty; b) the system of interstate relations; c) the political systems of individual states. The choice of these analysis parameters is explained in the article.

States have used various strategies to deal with the pandemic, directed towards isolationism. At the same time, the polarization of the population increased. The system of interstate interaction has not fundamentally changed despite the difficulties that have arisen. The processes of de-globalization have intensified due to the policy of states towards isolationism. At the same time, globalization understood as transnationalization, manifested itself in the active use of digital communication technologies in various fields, including at the international (transnational) level. In turn, the megatrend of democratization was expressed in the activities of volunteers, the opening of access to performances, lectures, museum exhibits on online platforms.

In general, it is shown that the world's political organization has not undergone significant changes as a result of the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, the trends that emerged even before it began have continued and intensified. At the same time, the rapid development of previously formed processes has led to a sharp increase in social, economic, and political contradictions, and as a result – polarization on many grounds in world politics, which creates a potential danger of conflict development.

 The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and synchronously changed the lives of billions of people all over the planet. The economic, social, and political problems were entwined in tight contradictions. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international and national political issues has been the focus of attention of academia around the world since early 2020. The primary attention has been focused on international and national levels. At the same time, the subnational and local dimensions of the corona crisis "elude" the political science community.
 
Nevertheless, fighting against the new biogenic danger changes the redistribution of power between the national, subnational, and local levels. The article analyses this redistribution and presents its preliminary due to the incompleteness of the pandemic results. It seeks to identify the main patterns of a new round of the evolution of subsidiarity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. What role does COVID-subsidiarity play now, and what are its prospects in the post-pandemic world? The article employs the concept of megatrends and comparative methods to answer this question. The results show that extraordinary powers have been redistributed worldwide from the national to the subnational level. The essential characteristic of COVID-subsidiarity is the emergence of emergency powers at the subnational and local levels. It happens in states with different political regimes and different political cultures. It is likely that even after the end of the current pandemic, in some cases, the subnational regions will try to retain the expanded powers they acquired during the emergency. This is part of a broader process of transformation of the modern state and its adaptation to the newly emerging political organization of the world.

In recent decades, global pharmaceutical value chains have been actively developing. Formed close cross-country and inter-sectoral ties contributed the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the functioning of global pharmaceutical chains. The effects of Covid-19 were overlapped previously emerging trends towards defragmentation of global pharmaceutical production. The aim of this paper is to identify possible firm strategies and models for restructuring pharmaceutical chains aimed at increasing their resilience in response to the damaging effects of Covid-19. We suppose that the resilience of the chain as a whole depends on the resilience of its separate links, and we show that the restructuring of pharmaceutical chains takes place in the form of the so-called “link” restructuring (restructuring of separate links of the chain). The paper highlights such models of “link” restructuring of sectoral cross-border chain as “zero” restructuring (stock creation); localization (including import substitution); migration (including reshoring and regionalization); globalization, which operate both in the short and long term periods. The multistage nature of global pharmaceutical chains, as well as the dynamic development of pharmaceutical outsourcing processes, have created favorable opportunities for “link” restructuring. At the same time, the features of restructuring were influenced by various factors, among which the degree of technology intensity of the pharmaceutical chain takes a key place. The paper proposes one of the possible classifications of pharmaceutical chains depending on the technologies used, where the following are distinguished: low-tech and medium-low-tech chains (production of essential pharmaceutical goods); medium-high-tech chains (production of generics); high-tech chains (production of patented drugs, production of biopharmaceuticals, production of medical equipment). The main conclusion the author comes is as follows: the higher the technology intensity of the pharmaceutical chain, the less defragmentation of pharmaceutical production will take place. Thus, in the production of high-tech biopharmaceutical goods, the most needed strategies will be regionalization and globalization of the chain links, while in the production of essential pharmaceutical goods, the strategy of localization and import substitution will be very successful (especially in the short term). This is due to the fact that as the technological effectiveness of the pharmaceutical chain increases, investment costs grow, which makes the efficiency of the chain’s functioning no less important than its resilience.

A public-private partnership (PPP), a long-term pooling of public and private partners’ resources, sharing risks, responsibilities, and results, is a successful tool employed in many countries to develop public infrastructure. The article argues that PPP is the optimal cooperation between the state and private sectors to solve social and economic problems. Even though PPP as the phenomenon of the modern economy appeared not too long ago, it had objective prerequisites, including the prior forms of cooperation between the state and individuals. The study of these prerequisites reveals the development patterns of PPP development, including its effectiveness, that allows politicians to harness them to develop an optimal state policy in the area. The article provides a comparative analysis of the PPP abroad to assess the intermediate results of the PPP development in Russia. In many countries (Canada, France, and Great Britain), a PPP as an economic model for developing the infrastructure complex has proved its viability and significantly contributes to social and economic development. It is essential that in addition to direct economic effects, a publicprivate partnership might result in indirect influence, including a positive impact on institutional development. Public-private partnership in Russia has not yet found wide application for improving the infrastructure complex. Therefore, it does not have enough impact on economic development. Despite the large volume of research on PPP, there are few comparative studies of PPP development in countries at different levels of socio-economic development. Relying on the conducted study of PPP in Russia and the leading foreign countries, the strategic model of PPP proposed by the author as well as broader foreign experience in PPP, the article provides recommendations aimed at better utilization of the opportunities provided by fostering of this form of cooperation between the state and individuals and increasing its role in the economic development of Russia.

Despite de-globalization, which has become a trend in recent years, a high degree of interdependence between countries remains in the world, and the solution of global problems through international cooperation of subnational units is in demand. Intrastate regions affect interstate relations by strengthening their cultural, trade, and economic ties, often contributing to the intensification of interstate dialogue. The article looks for the primary factors and features of international activity of Russia’s border regions as territories located near foreign states and which have the most significant number of “points of contact.” It also tries to assess their impact on Russia’s foreign policy. The study shows that Russian regions have recently gained some independence in their external relations and managed to acquire all the features of influential non-state actors, according to the theory of actorness by Russet and Star. They have become integrated into a wide variety of international structures, where they can implement joint infrastructure projects with foreign regions and develop local self-government. Russian border regions become active on the international stage when they have common socio-economic and security problems, ethno-confessional, and cultural-linguistic affinity with the regions of neighboring states, and when the federal center uses their regions for important geopolitical factors for the foreign policy of the federal center. Building close ties based on cultural, linguistic, and ethnic affinity, the Russian regions perform a “compensating function,” making up for the lack of mutual understanding at the level of bilateral relations. They also act as “diplomatic agents” of the federal center in international organizations which promote local-level democracy. Regions also have the potential to build up Russia’s “soft power.” Although cross-border cooperation implies some costs, which the federal authorities try to reduce through legal regulation, it is still widely supported by federal governments.

The article examines the mutual influence of the country's image and its trading activities in foreign markets. Territorial products are in high demand in other countries and connected in the minds of consumers with the country of production. The authors focus their attention on Central Asia as a region with an actively developing economy and essential for Russia in building the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). There is also a high interest in this region from other countries – the USA, China, Turkey, South Korea, Japan. The article analyzes whether Russian metallurgical products can be considered a territorial product that increases the country's attractiveness as a whole in the market of Central Asian countries. The study aims to compare consumers' attitudes to Russian and Chinese metal products, as Chinese metal producers are currently becoming more active in the market of Central Asian countries. The study employs two methods: an expert interview and a survey of consumers of metallurgical products.
The authors conclude that Russian metallurgical products have a stable positive reputation in the market of Central Asian countries. Its reputation in the minds of consumers is associated not only with the price and quality of the product itself but also with a high level of metallurgical education and research and production activities in Russia. In addition, it is essential for consumers that product information is presented in a familiar language, and the cultural features of business communication of Russian suppliers are close and understandable to them. In turn, Chinese metallurgical products do not have such a reputation since Central Asian consumers do not have experience in its utilization, are not aware of the history of metallurgical production in China, scientific and technical developments, and the quality of professional education in the field of metallurgy in this country. They also do not understand China's language and business culture; they are not familiar enough with Chinese suppliers, which affects their choice in favor of a Russian supplier. On this basis, the authors conclude that Russian metallurgical products can be considered a territorial product in the market of Central Asian countries.

The research aims to assess the prospects for the development of Islamic tourism in Africa. The authors analyze the notion and features of Islamic tourism and identify key differences between “Islamic tourism” and “Halal tourism.” The authors define “Islamic tourism” as a type of tourism that includes travels for any purpose under Islamic principles. The research mainly covers the development of Islamic tourism in African countries. For this purpose, it analyzes the tourist flows’ trends and the leading African touristic destinations, identifies the main Halal-friendly African destinations. The leading states here are Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa; Tunisia fosters its potential for Islamic medical tourism; Senegal and Mali are attractive due to Islamic heritage sites. The main problems for the development of Islamic tourism in Africa have also been identified: underdeveloped tourist and Halal infrastructure, lack of security, and poor promotion of tourist services among potential tourists are among the most significant ones. The study has found that popular Halal destinations are countries with a predominantly Muslim population and states where Muslims are a minority. Despite the restrictions followed by COVID-19 and a significant decrease in the tourism sector, a return to the previous volumes of tourist flows and income is expected in 2023. The World Tourism Organization actively supports the recovery and development of tourism in African countries. The improvement of Halal infrastructure and new facilities for this type of tourism will contribute to an overall increase in income from tourism activities and the popularization of Islamic tourism.

Book review: The (des)lace of Catalonia in Spain. 2021. Director Jaime Ferri Durá. Valencia, Tirant lo Blanch. 304 p. ISBN: 978-84-1355-691-8

Book review: Sullivan H., Dickinson H., Henderson H. (eds). 2021. The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 1737 р. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030- 29980-4