Abstract: The article analyzes the modern international aspects of corruption and its manifestations in the leading foreign states: the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and the European Union. Using the concrete examples, the author proves that government agencies of these countries are systemically affected by corruption. At the same time, the regularly published global press-release of the “Transparency International” organization about the corruption perception in different countries and regions assigns them to the countries with a low level of corruption. The research methodology is based on the system, structure-functional, comparative-political approaches, the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, observation. Russia, according to the “Transparency International” index, is traditionally among the countries with a high level of corruption, comparable with the African states. The author quotes the data of the latest published press-release, which demonstrate the partiality of its assessment of the corruption situation in different countries, used as an instrument of states discrediting for different reasons, comfortable for the USA and its allies. 

Keywords: Germany, corruption in the EU, corruption in the US, Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index, corruption, Great Britain, corruptogenic factors, international aspects of corruption, USA

Abstract: The author aims at defining the role of social networks and network services in political processes in the context of contemporary global policy. The research object is the Internet, the research subject is social networks and their influence on the international policy. The involvement of new information and communication technologies both in everyday life and the international practice leads to the fact that the role of new global policy actors increases, they compete with states. Social network services have a unique ability to gain and spread information, which is the key factor of power. The research methodology is based on the system, structure-functional, comparative-political approaches, comparative analysis, observation, induction and deduction. The author attempts at answering the question – are there any reasons to consider social networks, in the person of their owning companies and users, as independent actors of contemporary global policy? The author analyzes the key scholars’ positions on this issue. The author applies the term, introduced by J. Nye, - cyberactors. The author concludes that, despite the fact that cyber actors are able to disturb state power and force monopoly in the context of global policy, due to the existing limitations and conditions, social networks and services can’t be considered as constant actors. 

Keywords: cyberactors, actors, diplomacy on-line, global policy, information, social networks, Internet, users, Internet campaigns, soft power

Abstract: Using the method of historical reconstruction, the author explains the causes and the nature of the latent civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) - one of the longest and the bloodiest conflicts on the continent for the entire post-colonial period. The comprehensive analysis of the little-known historical sources (memoirs of participants of the events, investigative journalism, evidence of well-known politicians and diplomats) allows finding out the motives and the goals of all parties to the conflict in the domestic and international opposition. Particular attention is drawn to the role of France, Belgium and the United States in the unleashing of a civil war in the Congo (Zaire), as well as to the specific manifestations of the "Françafrique" geopolitical doctrine in this confrontation. The author shows the close connection between the events in the Republic of the Congo and the genocide of the Tutsis sociolinguistic groups in Rwanda. The author concludes that the Fifth Republic has for long supported the regime of the Congolese dictator Mobutu, providing it with political cover, ensuring financial assistance and, if necessary, protecting the odious policies in order to maintain economic and political preferences of Paris in this region rich in uranium, copper, coltan. The author believes that the Congolese war was a clear indication of the struggle for the redistribution of the spheres of influence in Africa between the old and the new actors of international relations.

Keywords: Mobutu, Françafrique, foreign legion, mercenaries, genocide, Rwanda, Belgium, USA, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France

Abstract: The research subject is the normative and legal contents of the provisions of the 2007 Virgin Islands Constitution in relation to the regulation of the status of public authorities and officials. The author studies the procedure of formation, the composition and competence of the public authorities of the Virgin Islands. The author also focuses on the legal nature of political and territorial relations of Britain with its overseas territories. The article studies the specificity of political and territorial relations materialization with regard to the constitutional status of the Virgin Islands. The author analyzes the problem issues of normative and legal provision of organization and interaction within the current model of political and territorial interaction. The research object is social relations within the constitutional provisions defining the legal status of public authorities of the Virgin Islands. The basic research method is comparative-legal. The results of the research help detect differences, similarities and problem aspects of the constitutional status of the Virgin Islands as a British overseas territory. This study is the first study of this issue in Russian constitutional legal science. It considers the problems of the constitutional status of the Virgin Islands as a British overseas territory. The author concludes that in the Virgin Islands there exists a ministerialist system in which the leading role in the formation and implementation of the constitutional course belongs to the Cabinet. This position is substantiated by the fact that the relations between Britain and the Virgin Islands, called in the White Paper on the Overseas Territories a “partnership”, should be qualified as unitary with the elements of federative. The author substantiates the need for the constitutional consolidation of the procedure of competence division between the public authorities of Britain and the Virgin Islands by the distribution of authorities in particular spheres. The author suggests considering the possibility of ensuring the representation of the Virgin Islands Cabinet in the British Government by including the corresponding ministers. The author also suggests establishing a constitutional procedure of the House of Assembly informing the British Government about its position on the draft laws, related to the Kingdom in general, and the British Government sending the draft laws, affecting the interests of the Commonwealth, to the overseas territories. The author notes the reasonability to introduce the procedure of preliminary consultations in discussing the issues of appointing the candidates to the post of the Virgin Islands Governor. The author concludes that the preliminary discussion of Governor candidates with local authorities is appropriate in all overseas territories.

Keywords: partnership, the House of Assembly, the Cabinet, the Governor, the Constitution, the Virgin Islands, the Overseas Territories, the British monarch, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Af, Virgin Islander

Abstract: The research object is economic pressure in the form of sanctions, which has recently become one of the main instruments of geopolitical rivals used for upholding their interests on the international scene. The author notes that, due to its limited impact, the policy of sanctions is the illustration of the crisis of the international relations system. The article analyzes economic consequences of sanctions used by the Western countries and Russia against each other. The author emphasizes that the peak of crisis in most economic indexes has been overcome by now. The author applies the methods of statistical analysis, system generalization and comparison. Using these methods, the author forecasts the further development of political and economic trends in Russia. In the author’s opinion, the further economic development of the state will be linked with the growth of economic and investment activity on the Russian Far East. The author concludes that the development of economic relations with the countries and investors of Asia-Pacific region is, on the one hand, a result of economic pressure of the Western countries, and on the other, a crucial step for Russia in economic decline overcoming. 

Keywords: hydrocarbons market, Crimean referendum, Ukrainian crisis, national interests, Asia-Pacific region, development of the Far East, international relations system, international relations crisis, economic crisis, sanctions

Abstract: The article studies interstate contradictions caused by the use of transborder water resources in the Tigris River basin in the context of arid climate and the maldistribution of resources. In the context of hydrotechnic projects realization in the river basin, the author analyzes the development of the conflict of interests between littoral states based on the distribution of regional water resources. The article considers the dynamics of development of relations between Turkey (the head river state) and the states on the middle (Syria) and the lower course (Iraq, Iran), and Turkey’s policy aimed at the realization of large scale water projects on the Tigris River. The author notes that regional water resources serve both as a political pressure instrument and a military instrument. The author applies the method of history and political science, the comparative method, component analysis and event-analysis to study the dynamics of development of water relations in the Tigris River basin. The author concludes that the addition of water contradictions to the ethno-confessional ones, territorial contradictions, Turkey’s egoistic water policy, along with the absence of multilateral basin agreement, lead to the worsening of political situation in the region. With account for a tense military and political situation, these factors can “explode” the region and destabilize the neighboring post-Soviet states. 

Keywords: Islamic state, political instability, climate change, water policy, basin agreement, hydrotechnic projects, hydroegoism, transborder water resources, interstate conflicts, international relations

Abstract: The research subject covers the technologies, characterizing the specificity of “color revolutions” in the modern world. The author analyzes the basic mechanisms, applied in “color” protests of the early 21st century: public consciousness patterns reformatting; the mechanism of a “symbolical victim”; the political space metaphorization and symbolization; making use of the nation-state identity crisis. The author compares the experience of successful and unsuccessful “color” protests on the post-Soviet political space (Georgia, Ukraine and others) and the most prominent political practices of the Arab Spring. The study is based on the combination of the comparative cross-national approach and the case-study method (consideration of particular cases of “color revolutions”). The scientific novelty of the study consists in the attempt to detect and analyze such fundamental mechanisms of “color” protests as the space of meaning reframing, metaphorization and a “slot machine”, the destruction of nation-state identity. The author concludes that, based on the combination of the above mentioned mechanisms (public consciousness patterns reformatting; the mechanism of a “symbolical victim”; metaphorization and symbolization of political space; making use of the nation-state identity crisis), the absolute plasticity and information and psychological controllability of the particular society are ensured. Such a society becomes bereft of the mechanisms of immunity to “color revolutions”; it is not ready to struggle against them and thus, it is exposed to any possible forms of an externally inspired “color” aggression. 

Keywords: metaphorization, multiplying effect, identity crisis, national identity, political performance, symbolical victim, color technologies, political protest, political space reformatting, color revolutions

Abstract: The research subject is the UN peacekeeping program “Responsibility to protect”. The author considers one of its components – the “responsibility to react” and its practical application during the events of the Arab Spring in Libya and Syria. Special attention is paid to the comparison of final documents of UN institutions (Security Council, different commissions, etc.) with the “Responsibility to protect” concept. The author points at the significant divergences between the theoretical part of the concept and its practical realization in particular situations. The author applies the method of historicism, comparative analysis, the method of conflictology, the information and political method and the behaviorist approach. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the identification of the place of the “Responsibility to protect” concept in the UN peacekeeping program in conflict settlement during the Arab Spring. Besides, the author reveals this concept’s role in armed conflicts in Libya and Syria since 2011 and defines the practical steps which had been taken within this program on the initial stages of these conflicts. 

Keywords: humanitarian intervention, UN institutional mechanisms, the Arab Spring, "responsibility to protect", political process, armed intervention, political settlement of conflicts, United Nations Security Council, peacekeeping program, armed conflict

Abstract: The article considers interest alignment policy as a specific set of instruments, principles and measures of state management activity aimed at the provision of mutual integration and conflict-free realization of public interests. The subject and object area of state policy of interest alignment includes the set of political relations and political and communicational processes connected with articulation, representation and realization of public interests. The topicality of the problem in question is conditioned by the necessity to increase the effectiveness and legitimacy of the process of political decision-making by public authorities. The author applies the structure-functional approach and the inductive method to build a quinary model of interest alignment policy, which includes the normative-coherence, articulation, communication, mediation and integration blocks. The author describes the application political analysis of each of these blocks. Studying the normative-value aspects of interest alignment policy, the author suggests focusing on legal and moral-ethical principles of allocation of limited social resources. Comprehensive understanding of the articulation block of interest alignment policy, in the author’s opinion, can be based on the consideration of a set of mechanisms, methods and principles of regulating impact of the state on the functional representation system. The communication block can be studied by means of monitoring the information flows along the “society – power-society” trajectory. Analyzing the mediation direction of interest alignment policy, the author considers the ombudsmen institution, mediation committees and various forms of volitional interference of the state in the process of social, economic and political conflicts settlement. Finally, to study the integration block, the author suggests carrying out political analysis of the mechanisms of direct and indirect participation of interest groups in the mutually agreed process of political decision-making. 

Keywords: conflict of interests, social partnership, lobbyism, interest alignment policy, political decisions, political communication, state policy, interest alignment, structure-functional approach, social resources

Abstract: The author studies the modern peculiarities of political elite, conditioned by the global policy circumstances and the national political process. This scientific interest is caused by, firstly, the strengthened contradictions between the fundamental provisions of conventional study of elites and the current political practice, in which the new specific features of “elite” and “political class” emerge, and secondly, the nature of the so-called “transition” or “hybrid” regimes, in which elite configurations significantly differ from theoretical patterns, which hasn’t been understood sufficiently enough. The research methodology is based on the works of G. Mosca, V. Pareto, R. Michels, J. Ortega y Gasset, E. Schattschneider, C. W. Mills and the key modern thinkers as R. Putnam, T. Dye and others. The author detects the features, characterizing the specificity of the modern political establishment of Russia; special attention is paid to the recruiting mechanisms and instruments, supporting the sustainable reproduction of elite. The author considers the influence of the topical trends of information and media space on the nature of relations of power and the formation of elite community, both in the national and international dimension. 

Keywords: agenda, executive authority, society, power, media, globalization, political process, elite, communication, Russia