Abstract: The paper deals with the Russian-Japanese interests-oriented model of cooperation in the 1990s within the framework of the diplomatic tactics and mechanisms introduced into the bilateral negotiations. In this research, the application of various negotiation instruments applied by the Japanese diplomacy toward the USSR and the Russian Federation in the late 1980s–1990s is analyzed to demonstrate the process of establishing cooperation, despite territorial disagreements. According to the specific historical and political environment, application of the negotiation methods researched in this paper was not allowed before the middle 1980s, and the introduction of a wide range of such tactics within the 1990s is becoming an argument in favor of that point of view that there was welcomed a partnership model between Japan and the Russian Federation. “No-necktie meetings”, leader talks, informal negotiations, “face-to-face diplomacy” applied from the mid-1990s led to the introduction of a positive model of interaction compared to the tactics used by Japan in the early 1990s. The personal contribution of politicians and diplomats to create the foundation for multidimensional cooperation between Russia and Japan was essential. Japanese diplomats Tamba Minoru, Edamura Sumio, Togo Kazuhiko, politicians Nakayama Taro, Hashimoto Ryutaro, Obuchi Keizo, and Mori Yoshiro left a noticeable mark in the processes considered in our research, the works published by them became a valuable source for the analysis of the considered events.

Keywords: Russian-Japanese negotiations, MOFA ‘Russian school’, ‘no-necktie meetings’, leaders talks, Edamura Sumio, Togo Kazuhiko, Tamba Minoru, face to face diplomacy, informal negotiations, Japan’s diplomacy

Abstract: The object of the study is the foreign policy of Argentina. The subject of the study is the diplomatic activity of Buenos Aires, expressed in the conclusion of bilateral agreements. The purpose of the article is to build a picture of the development of Argentina's foreign policy based on a quantitative analysis of more than eight thousand documents contained in the Digital Library of Treaties (Biblioteca Digital de Tratados) on the web portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the general dynamics of Argentine diplomatic activity and the change of priorities in contacts with individual states and regions. Special attention is paid to the comparative dynamics of Argentina's relations with the United States, Russia, China and leading European countries in the period from 1983 to the present. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the study of this array of documents in their entirety has not yet been conducted by domestic scientists. The article uses general scientific methods of cognition, as well as statistical analysis. The aforementioned library of treaties was used as sources, as well as the works of Argentine and domestic researchers devoted to various aspects of the subject under consideration. As a result of statistical analysis of the collection of treaties, the peculiarities of Argentina's diplomatic activity at different stages of the evolution of its foreign policy were revealed, presented in the form of diagrams and graphs. The main conclusions can be noted, firstly, a sharp increase in diplomatic activity in general and especially outside the region in the period after 1946; a tendency to increase the importance of Russia, China and Asian countries in the period after 1983; while maintaining the priority of relations with European countries under all presidents except K. Fernandez.

Keywords: Asia, Europe, China, Russia, USA, Latin America, bilateral agreement, diplomacy, foreign policy, Argentina

Abstract: The topicality of this problem is determined by the fact that NATO remains one of the strongest security structures in the international arena, and the processes in this organization are among the most important issues to be studied. The research subject is the decision-making process within NATO and the role and significance of small countries in this process. To protect their interests, small countries connect their national security with different regional defense organizations such as NATO. Important components of NATO’s decision-making process are the consensus principle, consultations, and indivisibility of security within the Alliance. The author also considers the attitude of other members of the Alliance to the small countries’ policies and maneuvers. The author uses the institutional method to detect the key functions and directions of NATO’s activities, structural-functional analysis – to consider the structural peculiarities of the organization and the role of its member-states, and the ontological method – to study NATO’s power and the relations of domination and subordination within NATO. The author concludes that small countries within NATO have particular leverages within the decision-making process. It is determined by the institutional and legal peculiarities of the organization and its fundamental principles. For small countries, it is possible to guarantee security and protect national interests within NATO, and at the same time, each member-state concedes a part of its sovereignty to the organization. 

Keywords: Decision-making process, Great Power, Consultations, Partnership for peace, North-Atlantic Council, Consensus, NATO, Small countries, National interests, Security

Abstract: The article concerns the process of rapprochement between the Soviet Russia and Germany within the concession policy framework. The author establishes the causes for the rapproachment of two states.  The separate peace treaty, which was concluded between the Soviet Russia and the German coalition states in March of 1918 in Brest-Litovsk caused great economic damage to the state. Additionally, the Brest peace treaty served as an excuse for the Allies to introduce the economic isolation regime against Russia.  The attention is paid that cooperation continued, while the states were interested in each other. The documents from the Russian archives, which were lately declassified, prove the presence of contradictions and frictions between the USSR and Germany at that time, which lowered the efficiency of the Rapallo spirit in the mutual trade and economic, political, and military technical connections. At the verge of 1926-1927 there was a rapture in the Soviet-German cooperation. The Germany joined the League of Nations and there was a granite scandal showed the real limit to the cooperation, which was reviewed by 1927 and changed.  With the transfer to the legal forms of cooperation, the military and technical contacts between the parties declined. When the active forefathers of such cooperation (Lenin, Trotskiy, Wirth, Seeckt) were gone, the Soviet government began to doubt the viability of strenghenting the defence potential of hte Soviet Union with the financial and technical support of Germany. When Germany and the USSR entered the global politics, both parties had the opportunities to use alternative partners, and they started trethinking the bilateral relations in military, political, trade and economic spheres. The pragmatic approach of Berlin and Moscow to the mutual cooperation challenged the entire Rapallo course, which lost its political and practical significance for both parties by the late 1920s.

Keywords: Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, Chicherin, G.V., Germany, mining industry, foreign capital, concession, Krasin, L.B., the Rapallo course, the USSR, economic isolation