The problem of political and economic regulation of contemporary global transformations, taken in the context of the New World Order discourse, attracts attention in Russia and abroad alike. Considering this problem, British analysts Ken Booth and Nickolas Wheeler underline three major approaches to security dilemma, namely, fatalist, mitigator, and transcender logics. Followers of the fatalist approach (neo-realists, globalists) believe that world order is a zero-sum game, where interstate interactions are mostly confrontational, and their pattern depends on the current balance of power. Mitigators (neo-liberals, functionalists, constructivists, etc.) insist that the emerging world order is a win-win game, where nations opt for investing some of their sovereignty into newly created international institutions (regimes and organizations), hoping that conventional rules adopted by them would help to decrease international uncertainty, which otherwise might lead to confrontation. Transcenders (neo-Marxists, feminists, anarchists, federalists, etc.) consider the existing world order an archaic one, calling for a new, fair and humane pattern of international relations. According to their logic, the new world order is the end of the game among sovereign states, because it derives from the idea of humankind not divided by national boundaries but united into a global transnational society.

Today’s world is witnessing the remarkable development of transregional ties between distinct regions and powers within the international system evolving towards multipolarity. However, the essence of transregionalism remains understudied to the extent that there is no clear consensus for which terminology should be used to define this phenomenon. The article compares existing approaches to transregionalism conceptualization, analyzes the differences in the use of terms, and discusses the global impact of transregional relations on world politics and economy. The author advocates a term transregionalism (instead of interregionalism, crossregionalism, macroregionalization etc.) and suggests its definition.

The purpose of this article is to give a brief introduction into a work, which investigated the differences between the actual strategic approach, that a company executes when entering a new market, with the approach offered by various theories. Due to confidentiality agreement signed with the company the author is not authorized to disclose any sensitive or internal information that can reveal the company’s identity. The paper combines the most common theories and approaches for market entry mode selection in order to develop a theory-based framework, which furthermore is compared to the firm’s working theory. The analysis is performed with the use of two markets, where the company already operates. This method of analysis identifies the crossing points as well as the controversial aspects of both frameworks. This way the study tests how effective and applicable are traditional theories to such a niche market that the company operates in. On the other hand by comparing the company’s entry mode selection model with the theorybased model the study identifies the imperfections of the company’s theory and makes a series of recommendations for its improvement. Additionally, it reveals the importance of combining and adjusting the theories to the specific company and not vice versa.

The article suggests a theoretical framework to analyze the impact of protest publics on the mechanism of political changes. An analysis of protests in Egypt and Turkey shows the non-linear nature of the political changes. It also highlights different roles that the protest publics could play in the mechanism of political changes: depending on the prevailing conditions and the actions of other actors, protest publics can build coalitions with other actors and provide democratic changes (“triggers” of democratic development) or protest publics can provide democratic alternative by developing democratic practices of civil participation. This trend is marginal, though, comparing with the dominant tendency towards strengthening of authoritarian regimes (“democratic innovators in authoritarian environment).” Authors raise further research questions of modeling the mechanisms of political changes in the conditions of the growing wave of democratization – in embedded democracies, as well as in consolidated democracies, in hybrid and authoritarian regimes, – on the one hand, and the crisis of traditional democratic institutions – representative democracy, political parties – on the other.

This author discussed the prominent book of American journalist and expert Robert D. Kaplan in the light of the recent publication of its Russian translation: [Kaplan R. Mest’ geografi i (The revenge of geography) / Transl. by M. Kotov. Moscow: Ko-Libri, 2015. P.277].

Quarter of a century after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Russian Duma, lower house of Parliament, still has a low representation of women. The article seeks to examine the causes for this phenomenon. It examines the factors that have been found to be responsible for the gender gap in parliaments across the world. It will then present this evidence in the light of the Russian experience to understand what lies behind the low level of representation of women in Russian national parliament. A mix of political, socio-economic and cultural factors will be analysed in detail to fi nd the causative aspects, analysing the inter-linkages between these various factors in play.

Today Russia is often being criticized for new legislative initiatives in the field of Internet communications. Laws in this area are often negatively perceived by online community and critics and are the cause of misunderstanding between the government and society. Russia, however, is not the only country that has attempted to regulate its online sphere. World practice shows that many states are seeking to regulate virtual life of society. Such initiatives are indeed useful and necessary. The world today is shifting to a new reality where virtual space will play an increasingly important role, but it will raise many dangers and challenges that are needed to be solved at the legislative level. The regulation of the Internet is at the junction of legislation and politics as it is directly concerns the interests of society, the rights and freedoms of the individual, so it is impossible to resolve these problems in isolation from political science and sociology. This article contains a brief review of the legislation in the field of Russian Internet and in some countries, and represents an attempt to determine a necessary level of government intervention in the Internet and the level of its regulation.

At the beginning of the 21st century Spain faced a number of challenges, primarily the growth of separatist sentiments in the regions fraught with the danger of its fragmentation on ethno-national basis. In the context of increased ethno-national mobilization of “small peoples” in Spain one of its most economically developed regions – Catalonia – envisages a rise of the regional identity. Against the backdrop of economic problems generated by the crisis of 2008-2014 the autonomous communities of Spain, including Catalonia, came across the rise of socio-political problems, particularly the growing distance between the society and the central administrative bodies formed in democratic conditions, as well as the two-party administrative system.

This article discusses current crisis of the contemporary Spanish political system. Both of authors suppose, previously made pragmatic decisions aimed to consolidate Spanish society after the era of Franco had become effective only in short-term perspective and are limited to only short-term positive effect today. Contemporary Spanish society faces a problem of political renewal – both in terms of party-political structure and in terms of the constitutional and legal basis of the whole system. Authors present a complex definition of the crisis as a phenomenon of political life and discuss the concept of the political stability in terms of actual practice conditions – including the realities of Spanish society. Various components of contemporary Spanish instability (the parties’ crisis, the lack of a strategic economic vector, the problems of identity and regional policy) strictly connects to the sharp conservative belief of political actors in the constitutional grounds of the Spanish state and the Moncloa Pact behind these base.

The Rise of China occurs in an adaptive and reactive regional system, giving impetus to the development of inclusive and expansive security architecture. This attempts to offset the statistical likelihood of confl ict with the rise of a major power as capability outweighs confl ict costs. China, in an effort to be a central player within this forming security architecture, contributes to its formation and participates in strategic narrative framing to defer from open confl ict and sabre rattling, while maintaining an increase in capabilities. This functionalist system of “open regionalism” incorporates external powers, furthering integrating the security concerns of the East Asian system with the security concerns of the world.

In the light of the present political situation in the world, namely complex relations between Russia and the West, on the one hand, and existing tensions between China and some of its regional neighbors, on the other, strategic partnership between Russia and China is gaining more and more importance for the both countries. The article aims to outline the reasons for maintaining and developing further bilateral partnership and explains the sustainability of those relations in contemporary context.

The article is devoted to an actual problem of guaranteeing global security and promoting an idea of nuclear-free world. The article provides some data on the history of establishing, the key stages of formation and consolidation of international legal agreements of the Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone. The author considers peculiarities and distinguishing features of a nuclear-free zone in Central Asia.

Book Review: Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’. Seven Speeches on Russian World (in Russian) / Comp. by A.V. Shhipkov. Moscow: Vsemirnyj Russkij Narodnyj Sobor, 2015.

Book Review: The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, 1932-1943 / Ed. by Gabriel Gorodetsky. Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2015. 584 p.