Suchergebnisse

The police, the Bundeswehr and the intelligence services of the FRG have been recently drawn into a series of high-profile scandals provoked by right-wing extremism and growing xenophobic attitudes among the ranks of the armed forces and law enforcement officers. The article is an attempt to analyze the reasons for the spread of right-wing extremism in the power structures of Germany, its main forms and the level of the threat it poses to society and government. As for the far-right-wing potential, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution puts the estimate at about 1,400 representatives. Although this number seems to be less than 1% of the country's total number of law-enforcement authorities, don't let it confuse you. Even a small group of right-wing extremists who possess weapons, are specially trained and have access to classified information can become a big problem for the government. Moreover, consideration must be given to the clearly growing rates of nationalist and xenophobic attitudes. According to the author, there are various reasons for the situation, with the main of them being the shifts in public sentiment, as well as the specifics of the activities of the police and the army. The European migrant crisis of 2015 and the following societal divisions influenced the attitudes of the country's security agencies, which did not approve the policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Additionally, constantly operating in criminal districts of large cities, mainly populated by Turks and Arabs, the police developed a negative attitude to all representatives of the migrant community. Furthermore, we should not forget that security agencies and the army are quite conservative by nature, and the crisis of state institutions inevitably pushes some «men of arms» to the far-right-wing camp, which promises to restore order. The article concludes with some recommendations on right-wing extremism prevention in the law enforcement system (spe-cial agencies performance improvement, adoption of education policy, etc.).

In the second half of the 2010 s, the scale of the threat of international terrorism faced by the EU and NATO member states increased significantly. This not only led to a large geographical expansion of the area of anti-terrorist struggle, but also initiated an active search for more effective specialized tactics. The article illustrates this process by the case of Germany, taking into account its growing activity on the world stage. Germany has taken part in the missions in the Mediterranean Sea deployed to prevent the arrival of fighters mimicking refugees into the EU. The paper pays special attention to German participation in anti-terrorist struggle in the countries of Middle East, Central Asia, and Sahel that have been trying to clear their territories of radical illegal armed groups. Germany has not been involved in the first phase of the fight against terrorist groups, during the ini-tial military defeat, but later actively participated in the implementation of anti-terrorist prevention measures. The author indicates the factors that determine Germany's readiness to use its military potential in the struggle with terrorist structures in a particular country. The article also stresses the de jure non-combat nature of the use of the Bundeswehr and explores the features and also «bottlenecks» in the use of its military contingents and the deployment of its military training missions. The task of the latter is to ensure that local security forces accept the main burden in the fight against illegal armed groups on their territory, while at the same time the FRG controls the training of se-curity forces (first of all army) and the use of troops. The author compares the schemes for the use of military training missions of the Bundeswehr in Mali, Somalia and Iraq. The main conclusion is that Germany is developing an anti-terrorist tactics which include the targeted use of special operations forces in order to reach the «point of no return» in the defeat of the militants.

На нынешнем этапе актуальна тема влияния СМИ на этнополитику. Исследователи показывают: многонациональному государству, каким является Казахстан, приходится учитывать, что СМИ сегодня часто становятся главным источником информации для населения. Иначе деструктивные оппозиционные силы, обостряя существующие межнациональные конфликты, могут привести к распаду государства.

Since the era of Cold War the dialogue with France has been too important for FRG in its efforts to strengthen its influence both in the Euro-Atlantic community and in the world. That is why the article has the goal to explore the relations between these two European powers in the security sphere from the second half of the 2010 s until the beginning of the 2020 s. The paper tries to determine the degree of institutionalization of interstate relations and the role of bilateral negotiating platforms in the creating of common position on international problems. It is also important to show the dynamics of negotiating process on the highest level. The author also examines the key articles of the Aachen Treaty (2019). In this regard the paper analyses early efforts of Emmanuel Macron to confirm French leadership in bilateral tandem. The article considers the features of German-French tactics to minimize negative impact of Brexit on the EU. Another aspect is the tandem actions aimed at weakening of negative effects of the steps of Trump`s administration over the system of international security. In this regard it`s important to show German-French contribution in the development of PESCO and also to analyse what problems and perspectives two powers may face on their way to the creation of common European army. Another interesting aspect is the features of common approach to the resolution of the armed conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, keeping JCPOA. The article also covers the «bottlenecks» and features of German diplomatic and military assistance to France in Mali. The situation shows the growing mutual interest for the deepening of cooperation in the Sahel G5 (also Burkina-Faso, Mauretania, Niger, Tchad). The author concludes about the prospects of German leadership in the tandem and its importance for both powers in the long-term.

The articles explores internal and external factors explaining the emergencе of the islamist terrorism on the French soil as well as the modalities of the French authorities' fight with it. In connection with the fact that most terrorists were born and grew up in France, special attention is paid to the problem of the Muslim community, the largest in Europe. An objective contradiction is noted between the desire of the majority of Muslims to preserve religious traditions and de facto atheistic French society. Coupled with the problems of poverty and social exclusion, this creates favorable conditions for the activities of Islamic fundamentalists, including militant, who seek to radicalize Muslim youth and promote the idea of jihad. The attempts of the authorities to oppose them with «French Islam», which would be compatible with the liberal «republican values» and the secular State, are showed. Measures to prevent radicalization of young Muslims are considered. At the same time, the article analyzes the efforts of the authorities to prevent terrorist attacks with the help of security structures, by tightening control over citizens, mobilizing local governments, forming a «culture of security» throughout the whole society. The fight of France against jihadism outside of its borders, namely in the Sahel region in Africa, is touched upon.

Beginning with an overview of the threats of terrorism in Europe and the USA, the author offers a survey of factors that have been identified as influencing the practices of counterterrorism or law enforcement agencies. Massive counterterrorism operations in Syria and Iraq as well as effectiveness of the counterterrorism authorities curbed large-scale attacks of jihadists in both Western Europe and the United States. But with one of the Islamic State's key goals being the formation of a new society, rather than simply military victories, the dissemination of its brand and ideology via mainstream social media becomes critical to achieving ISIS' strategic goals. A surge in the Muslim population with subsequent high Muslim unemployment has been shown to be a predisposing factor for radicalization of the part of Muslim diasporas and its recruitment into the global jihad. The EU-members and the United States need to work more closely on disrupting jihadists' social media, travel, recruitment and logistics, countering terrorist finance, protecting potential targets. The importance of sharing information is specifically underlined. But the polarisation of society, discrimination and other psychological and sociological factors can reinforce people's vulnerability to radical discourse. Thus, counter-terrorism should not be purely repressive: integration and iclusion would contribute to prevention efforts, assuming that a more cohesive and inclusive society can help prevent the spread of extremist ideologies leading to terrorism.

Since the early 1990 s, Germany has been playing an active role in shaping so-called the post-Yugoslavian space, using a diversified political, diplomatic and military tools. Demonstration of Germany's abilities in the Balkans contributed to the fact that the country gradually regained its role as a regional power and began to move towards the position of a full-fledged global player. The article focuses on the dynamics and results of the development of bilateral contacts between the FRG and the Balkan regional actors in the political and military field in the 2010 s. In this regard, the practical significance of increasing the number of Balkan countries in NATO and launching the Conference on the Western Balkans is analyzed. The roles of Slovenia and Croatia as focal regional partners of Germany are revealed. The author compares FRG's approaches to the settlement of armed conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo and shows the difficulties faced by German diplomacy in bringing these countries closer to the Euro-Atlantic community. In this context, the position of the FRG in the settlement of the «Macedonian issue» is examined and the growing understanding by the German leadership of the importance of a significant improvement in relations with Serbia for strengthening the strategic positions of Germany in the Balkans is revealed. The author describes the mediating and coordinating role of Germany in establishing unofficial contacts between official Belgrade and Kosovo and emphasizes the importance of the «negotiation link» between Chancellor A. Merkel and President A. Vučić. It is noted that Germany demonstrates the readiness to accept the tactics of multi-speed rapprochement of the states of the post-Yugoslavian space with the EU and NATO. The article concludes that, at the present, the main tactical task of the FRG in the post-Yugoslavian space is to ensure the integration of all states in the region into the Euro-Atlantic community.

The article analyzes some aspects of Romania's foreign policy in the Balkan region. It is noted that the same fact that country belongs to the Balkans causes ambiguous interpretations on the part of Romanian politicians and experts, many of whom believe that Romania cannot be attributed to this region either geographically or politically. At the same time, culturally and historically, according to a certain part of historians and sociologists, Romania nevertheless carries the features of the so-called «Balkanism», due to the common Ottoman past with the Balkan Peninsula. These features are also relevant for the current socio-political situation, which is shown in the article with specific examples. In addition, criticism of the very term «Balkanism» from the side of Romanian analysts is presented. The author also examines Romania's relations with the countries of the Western Balkans, primarily with Serbia. The points of contact of the positions of these countries are noted, which are largely due to the desire of Serbia to resolve the Kosovo problem in its favor, relying on the support of Romania - one of the five EU countries that did not recognize the independence of Kosovo. Romania, using this situation, is trying to strengthen its position, seeking regional leadership. The author comes to the conclusion that, although the Western Balkan countries directly or indirectly aspire to Euro-Atlantic structures, some of them (primarily Serbia) maintain and develop friendly relations with Russia, which complicates their interaction with Romania, orthodoxly adhering to the NATO and European Union policies and having a very difficult relationship with Russia.

Since joining the current stage of globalization, France has changed considerably. Shifts occurred in all spheres of society, but they were not synchronous. The most dynamic area – the economy-was the fastest to «react» to France's entry into the global economy. In the social sphere, the changes were slower than in the economy, but they were very profound: they affected the working class, employees, and the middle classes, which were numerically reduced and fragmented. In the mid-1990 s, France's foreign policy began to adapt to the new world order that emerged as a result of the collapse of the USSR. This forced the French political class to reconsider its foreign policy attitudes and «to make lower its ambitions». By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the political landscape of the country had changed: traditional parties had collapsed, and radical populist parties and movements («Unconquered France» of J.-L. Melenchon and «National Union» of M. Le Pen) had become stronger on the left and right flanks. Against the background of these large-scale changes, social protest movements have emerged and intensified in France; the split between society and the elites has acquired unprecedented proportions. To these trends and phenomena, the coronavirus pandemic has been added, which poses a huge number of problems for the country's authorities to solve.

The article analyses the place of the Soviet past issues in the interparty discussion in contemporary Russia. The methodology of the study is based on the cleavage theory and the issue dimensions theory which consider confrontation as the engine of the political life. The lists of issues and most active participants are formed on the base of issue salience and issue ownership criteria. Factor analysis of party positions on these issues revealed two divisions: 'Communists vs Anticommunists' and 'Liberals vs Statists'. Factor loadings of these divisions are compared with parties' factor loadings in political dimensions on a wider range of issues: three main ones (systemic, authoritarian-democratic, socioeconomic) and seven additional – in three issues domains: domestic policy, social and economic policy, systemic domain (international relations + worldviews). It is detected that the 'Communists vs Anticommunists' division correlates well with the main socioeconomic dimension and its subtype 'Communists vs Liberals', but most strongly – with a sub-dimension 'Soviet traditionalists vs Progressives' from the systemic domain. The 'Liberals vs Statists' division appeared to correlate closely with the main authoritarian-democratic dimension, but much more – with the subtype 'Liberals vs Loyalists' from the domestic policy issue domain. It is concluded that the divisions on the issues of the Soviet past easily fit into the picture of political dimensions and even get lost in it. Comparison of divisions over the Soviet past with electoral cleavages shows that these issues are not very important for the mass mind. High correlation coefficients are devalued by high p-levels, indicating that there is a typical "third factor" effect in the case.

The review deals with prominent aspects of the interaction between the SCO Member States in the field of politics, economics, science and education. Special importance is attached to digitalization, youth projects, scientific and educational cooperation of universities and the activities of international information and scientific centres that have an impact on the integration processes in the Eurasian area.

The article examines the current state of affairs in Belarus and Serbia - two countries that previously were parts of the socialist federal states, but currently belong to the regions of Eastern Europe and the Balkans/South-Eastern Europe, respectively. The first part of the article is devoted to Belarusian-Serbian relations. Political cooperation is developing at the presidential, governmental and parliamentary levels, and interaction is also carried out at the level of various departments, regions and cities. For Serbia, the support from Belarus on the international scene is important, in particular, in the issue of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia. The second part of the article is devoted to Serbia's relations with the EU and the countries of the Adriatic Euroregion. On December 22, 2009 Serbia applied for EU membership. Despite the significant progress in the negotiations, Serbia has not yet become one of the EU member states. The third part of the article analyzes relations between Belarus and its neighbors, as well as cooperation with the EU. The European Union is the second most important market for Belarusian exports (after Russia). The main trading partners of Belarus among European countries, based on the indicators of bilateral trade in 2019, are Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Latvia, France, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. The article concludes on the state and prospects of Belarusian-Serbian relations, cooperation of Belarus and Serbia with the EU and neighboring countries, and gives a description of the political systems and foreign policy of Belarus and Serbia.

Based on the study of various types of sources and analysis of Russian and foreign literature, the author conceptually substantiates an approach to the study of the Balkan region / South-Eastern Europe. One of the main problems considered in the article is the change in the course of the history of the 19 th-21 st centuries the ratio of the concepts of «Balkans/South-Eastern Europe», «Eastern Europe», «Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe», «Western Balkans», «Western Balkan countries» and «European Western Balkans». The author characterizes various historical stages of the development of the region in the context of world wars and revolutions of the 20 th century, shows the specifics of political and ethnic processes, the internal political situation in each country and relations between the states of the region, the correlation between the processes of regionalization and globalization. With the disappearance of Eastern Europe in the form in which it existed in 1949-1991, after the anti-communist social and national revolutions in the former socialist countries of Europe in 1989-1992, an integral part of the process of national self-determination was the change in the regional self-identification of each people, society and state. If in the 2000 s, positive dynamics prevailed both in terms of internal political development, intraregional and global international relations, then in the 2010 s, the forward movement has stalled in terms of both the internal economic, social and political development of the states of the region, and the settlement of interethnic and interstate conflicts in the region against the background of a general aggravation of international relations. The article examines the role of regional identification and self-identification as elements of national self-awareness. The author also characterizes the challenges facing the countries of the region in the short, medium and long terms and indicates that the choice of the Balkans / South-Eastern Europe, despite the specificity caused by their historical fate, and all the difficulties of development and conflicts, has already been made: the Balkans (like Russia as well) is an integral part of Europe.

We can face the fact that the factor of military power has been gaining increasing influence in the world politics. In this regard one of key tasks of international relations` studies is the exploration of armed forces` building of the countries in the dynamics. The creating a three-dimensional picture of these processes is difficult without the use of mathematical indicators, which show the key features and "narrow places" of the development and the usage of war machines' potential of the key countries in the world arena. In this article the focal case of these studies with the usage of mathematical assessments is the Bundeswehr. The reason of the given choice is the changing German role and place in the Euro-Atlantic community and the world arena as the whole. Germany has been trying to become the status of full-fare world power. One of the inherent features of this process is the growing of the Bundeswehr`s potential that had begun in the second half of 2010-s and has had the perspective by the middle 2030-s. The article presents mathematical indicators that allow to show a more voluminous assessment of the progress of building the Bundeswehr's potential and German military budget (both in general and in terms of articles of spending and other specific indicators) in comparison with other largest NATO member states. The research paper also examines the indicators that make it possible to "highlight" the peculiarities of the Bundeswehr's usage outside and inside the NATO zone of responsibility as well as issues the evolution of the foreign (allied) military presence on the territory of the FRG. The author tries to conclude the generalizations of German "war machine" development, basing on 11 mathematical indicators, 6 of which introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

The paper analyses content on socio-political topics published in contemporary Russian sociological journals: "Sociological Studies", "Sociological Journal", "Siberian Socium" and "Social Sciences and Humanities. Domestic and Foreign Literature. Series 11. Sociology". The publications that were the subject of our interest were predominantly under the heading of political sociology and/or in thematically similar sections. Among the most discussed topics in the pages of the journals are the following: the domestic political agenda, primarily related to the manifestation of protest and civic activism of Russians; the role of individual political actors or institutions (state, Russian President, elite, youth, etc) in the socio-political transformations in the country; problems and outcomes of post-Soviet transformations; foreign policy issues (confron- ∗ Yadova Maiya, Institute of information for social sciences of the Russian academy of sciences (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: m.yadova@mail.ru Political science (RU), 2021, N 4 305 tation between Russia and Western countries, threats to national security), sociopolitical structure of other world powers. A small proportion of the studies in this segment focus on new concepts and theoretical and methodological approaches in political sociology, or on socio-political phenomena that have not yet been sufficiently explored. The thematic repertoire of journals depends on their genre peculiarity. General sociology journals are characterised by coverage of a wide range of political issues. In the journal "Siberian Socium", as expected, there is a prevalence of works with a regional focus, but there are also some more general works. Abstract journal "Sociology", due to its specificity, is primarily represented by secondary information and analytical materials (abstracts, literature reviews, book reviews), which as a rule are based on foreign-language sources of scientific literature.