Abstract: The role of France and its foreign policies in one of the most volatile regions of the world, the Persian Gulf, constitutes the subject of this study. The authors discover the interests which the Fifth Republic pursues in the Gulf, spotlight the advantageous and vulnerable aspects of French diplomacy in the said field. The study covers the dominant French perception of the Gulf as a "crossroads space", strategically crucial for the security of France and Europe a whole. The major competitors of the Fifth Republic which challenge France in order to preserve their interests are also defined. Methodologically, the study's foundation is laid by the principle of regionalism - a way of defining a region as a self-sufficient unity with its defining specific traits. This explains the fact that the article does not only study the relations between France and each single country of the Gulf, but rather its approach to the region as a whole. The foreign policy of the Fifth Republic is studied as an integrated entity, combining military and non-military leverage. The method of comparison allowed to weight the resources of France against the potential of competing players. Concluding their analysis, the authors would define France as a "transitory" player in the region. French diplomacy has several channels of influence in the Gulf area, but it lacks the resources to establish itself as an undisputed leader (while pushing aside other major forces, such as the USA).

Keywords: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, arms trade, defence policy, foreign policy, Persian Gulf, France, UAE, Emmanuel Macron

Abstract: The subject of this article is the cultural foreign policy of modern Germany that became a key traditional tool for the forming of a positive image of the state in terms of foreign policy. The author examines the major vectors of German cultural foreign politics, outlines key platforms and strategies that allow to enhance the competitiveness of the actor's political image, defines the aims and goals of modern cultural foreign policy of Germany. The article analyzes the historical development of cultural politics of Germany, describes the key stages of German's Kulturpolitik's evolution that became the basis of German's post World War II political image. The methodology of this work includes historic method, and the method of political analysis. The empirical basis employed by the author includes the data on modern strategies of German Ministry of Foreign Politics in cultural policies. The novelty of this work is the analysis of transformations of cultural policies of Germany, starting at the first decades of the XXth century to the present day. The article provides a survey of the main cultural programs aimed to improve the image of Germany which suffered significant damage after World War II.

Keywords: foreign policy of the state, image of the State, Federal Republic of Germany, Germany, Soft power, The image of Germany, Image strategy, Cultural policies, cultural diplomacy, image