Abstract: China rightfully stands as one of the leaders in world Olympic sports for many years. At the same time, sports achievements are viewed not only as a goal but also as a means of addressing the current tasks in the country's international politics. As history shows, this approach has been employed by the Chinese government since the formation of the Republic, when sports diplomacy was regarded as a means to establish diplomatic relations with various countries, including the United States. The subject of the study is the sports diplomacy of the People's Republic of China, examined through the lens of the country's participation in the Olympic Games, Formula 1 World Championship, and other international sports competitions. The aim of the research is to identify how the impact of sports diplomacy, particularly the arrival of the first Chinese Formula 1 driver and the expansion of technological investments in the sports sector, contributes to the creation of a new channel of "soft power" and addresses economic challenges. The methodological framework includes the analysis of official documents, statistical data, and case studies of key events (the construction of the Shanghai circuit, contracts with global sponsors, the career of Zhou Guanyu). The work is based on highly informative articles by various specialists, such as A. Kattepura, V. Vostrikov, K. Goel, R. Rul, D. Oje, M.-P. Lafond. The results of the research indicate that sports diplomacy helps China develop a new platform for the dissemination of "soft power" and employs a new economic tool to attract tourists and mutual investments. This form of cooperation serves as an instrument for building bilateral relations with different countries, as demonstrated by the examples of "ping-pong diplomacy," "stadium diplomacy," and the Olympic movement. In the field of motorsport, China is actively integrating into its global technological and personnel structure. The PRC is no longer just a passive sponsor but an active participant in major competitions, including Formula 1. The emergence of a Chinese driver and the return of the Chinese Grand Prix after the pandemic have increased citizens' interest in motorsport, attracting over 200 million new fans and forming a positive image of the country.

Keywords: PRC, Sports diplomacy, Stadium diplomacy, Ping-Pong Diplomacy, Soft power, Olympic Games, Formula 1, Investments, Chinese Grand Prix, High-performance sport

Abstract: Numerous incidents of Korean cultural heritage illicit export by Japanese citizens highlight the need for a detailed study of South Korean government's measures for cultural assets restitution. The study focuses on the measures taken by the Republic of Korea in its dialogue with Japan to return illegally exported cultural property. Special attention is paid to analyzing changes in the positions of South Korea and Japan during negotiations in the eve of diplomatic relations establishment. The purpose of this study is to determine the specifics of South Korean government’s policy for the restitution of national heritage illegally exported by Japan. The author identified the historical conditions for formation of South Korean government’s foreign policy aimed at national relics return. The author eastablished the transition from comprehensive negotiations for national relics restitution to individual cases of cultural heritage return. The methodological basis of the study is an analysis of reports from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Japan and South Korea on negotiations in the lead-up to diplomatic relations establishment. Situational analysis was used to study individual cases of cultural relics restitution. News agences such as "Yonhap News", "ChoongAng Ilbo", "Kyunghyang Shinmun" provided information about individual cases of cultural properties return. The novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive analysis of Japanese-Korean negotiations from the perspective of illegally exported relics return. The author's main contribition to the study is the definition of the historical conditions for formation of South Korean govenment's policy for cultural relics restitution from Japan.

Keywords: The Republic of Korea, cultural assets illicit export, Japan-Korea talks, cultural heritage restitution, Japan, historical conditions, DPRK, colonial period, termilogical disputes, political course

Abstract: Since 2008, when Raul Castro became President of Cuba, Russian-Cuban relations have been the strongest politically since the end of the Cold War. Despite the obvious "gap" in the first decade and a half after the collapse of the USSR, they revived many symbolic attributes of the bilateral ties of the Soviet era. The article is devoted to identifying the reasons for the "reset" of Russian-Cuban relations in the period 2008–2018. The emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of the strategic thinking prevailing in the Cuban ruling elite throughout the entire period since January 1959. The work touches on various aspects of bilateral relations, including political, trade and economic ties. Considerable attention is paid to the convergence of the positions of both countries on the global problems of the modern multipolar world. The emphasis is also placed on the legacy of the Soviet period of bilateral relations, which acquires an important symbolic significance. The theoretical foundation of the work is the approaches of the realistic pragmatism of H. Dominguez and its close connection with the defensive realism of K. Waltz. Attention is also paid to M.Erisman's approaches within the framework of the concept of counter-dependence. The research methodology is based on a qualitative analysis of texts. The historical analysis of foreign policy events and diplomatic contacts was applied with a comparative analysis of various periods of bilateral relations. The arguments given in the article suggest that a special strategic culture has developed in Cuba over the decades. It is based on quite pragmatic considerations, according to which a country's international subjectivity can be preserved only through a multi-vector policy aimed at maintaining a balance of power. Combined with the changes that took place in Russian foreign policy in the mid-1990s, Cuban-Russian relations remain mutually beneficial for both countries. The paper examines the state and prospects of Russian-Cuban relations in the context of Cuba's foreign policy concept. It is concluded that the improvement of bilateral relations will continue despite generational changes in the composition of the ruling Cuban elite. They are based on the desire to diversify their external relations against the background of escalating global contradictions.

Keywords: realistic pragmatism, defensive realism, offensive realism, multipolar world, Russian-Cuban relations, geopolitics, diversification, Raul Castro, blockade of Cuba, bilateral relations

Abstract: Japan-China cultural ties in the 1970s and 1980s received a powerful impetus for development against the background of strengthening bilateral relations in the 1970s and the beginning of a turn in Chinese foreign policy towards increasing ties with market economies. Traditionally, cultural transfer from China to Japan has occupied in the center of contacts between two states, but in the 20th century, political relations and cultural dialogue have undergone a series of dramatic changes. After the end of the Second World War, despite ideological contradictions, cultural contacts between China and Japan expanded steadily. The purpose of this article is to study the development of cultural dialogue between Japan and China during 15 years following the normalization of Japanese-Chinese relations in 1972, by exploring three channels of diplomacy: the official cultural activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cultural diplomacy of public organizations and the creative and cultural activities of the chairman of the Japanese Pen Club Inoue Yasushi, who acted as a representative the part of the intellectual elite of Japan that was set up in favor of dialogue with the PRC. The article highlights three stages of the formation of Japanese-Chinese cultural contacts in the 1950s – 1980s, gives their characteristics and reveals the main content of contacts at the civil level, highlights important cultural projects, for example, a special project to study and highlight the history of the Great Silk Road in China. The channel of civil cultural diplomacy and the personal role of Inoue Yasushi played a significant role in building a constructive Japanese-Chinese dialogue against the background of a shortage of official ties between the two countries in the 1950s – 1980s.

Keywords: Japanese-Chinese cultural relations, Inoue Yasushi, Silk Road, cultural diplomacy, civil diplomacy, international projects, youth exchanges, Western Region, Japanese pen Club, international relations

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

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