Why has constructivism emerged as an important force in the field of international relations and politics in the end of the 20th century? Why constructivism and not any other theoretical approach? The constructivist perspective of international relations appeared as a counterbalance to rationalism that was entrenched in US Political Science throughout the last decades. Analyzing the contemporary state of world affairs through the prism of social constructivism provides us with a unique understanding of how intersubjective perceptions lead to unique epistemic interpretations of reality, which form the ideological framework within which social constructs are being generated. Constructivism succeeds not only in identifying the motives behind the behavior of international actors, but also in unfolding the mechanism through which those motives are being envisaged and accepted through the process of social construction – here lies the greatest value of the constructivist approach in IR theory. Culture formation, nation building, imagined communities, security complexes – the constructivist approach remains an invaluable tool in the arsenal of political analysts, seeking to understand how culture, history, social order, religion, and language project their infl uence on the international arena and ultimately: why international players behave the way they do?

After the 2014 European Parliament elections the voices of Eurosceptic forces have become increasingly louder, with their activity beginning to have direct infl uence on the EU politics, which can be proved by the results of the 23rd June UK’s EU referendum. Consequently, the interpretation of the term “Euroscepticism” and its typology is of a particular interest in the academic world. This article compares such varieties of Euroscepticism as “ideological” and “strategic”. Basing on the defi nitions, given by N. Sitter, P. Kopecky and C. Mudde, the author analyses the policies of the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Italian “Five Star Movement”. While both parties, calling for the withdrawal from the EU and the Eurozone respectively, and being members of the same European Parliament political group (Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy) are considered anti-EU forces, Euroscepticism is not playing the same role in their policies. This can be explained by different historic attitude of the British and the Italians towards the European integration as well as different problems which the countries have to face being the EU members. Through examining the process of the parties’ institutionalization, their structure, and analyzing their initial aims, election programs, party leaders’ speeches and voting tactics in the European Parliament the author consistently proves that while in case of UKIP Euroscepticism is ideological and completely defi nes the party policy, in case of M5S it is purely strategic and aimed at attracting the electorate.

The global system is being rocked by the dueling ambitions of two competing blocs, with the US and its allies fighting to reinforce their unipolar system while Russia and its partners struggle to forge a multipolar future. The rapidity and scope with which events are unfolding makes it overwhelming for the casual observer to make sense of all of the complex processes currently at play, and truth be told, it’s understandable that all of this can appear confusing. In an attempt to clarify the present state of global affairs and forecast the direction that it’s all headed in, the article begins by explaining the nature of chaos theory and describing how it’s applicable to conceptualizing contemporary international relations. Afterwards, the idea of “chaos sequencing” is proposed, which in essence is a model that can be used in understanding the process of chaotic change. Following that, the article addresses the topic of global systemic change and includes the most relevant examples for how this relates to the present day. Next, the research combines these two aforementioned elements (chaos theory and global systemic change) and presents a forward-looking geopolitical analysis that incorporates cutting-edge Hybrid War theory and aims to put the New Cold War into its proper perspective. Finally, the article ends on a suggestive note in encouraging analysts to study the authors’ conceptualization of Hybrid War in order to better prepare themselves for understanding and responding to forthcoming international events.

This article concentrates on the main problems of reforming of the current EU migration policy. The authors examine the EU’s legal norms and national judicial basics in the sphere in order to emphasize a certain evolution of the approaches of member states to migration control issues. Longterm crisis in the EU migration policies, which was strengthen in 2014-2015, is going ahead. National governments are obliged to seek for comprehensible ways out of such situation both at supranational and national levels. Hence, we can consider common features of their policies as well as evident distinctions. To illustrate last changes in European migration policy we use the examples of Great Britain and France. Both countries are concerned by huge diffi culties of their policy realization: the newcomers do not succeed to integrate themselves into society and prefer to live in isolated quarters with their culture and religion; at the same time, the popularity of radical anti-immigrant parties steadily grows. British and French governments are to fi nd a balance between free immigration policy and the duty to ensure security whereas security risks are rising in such social circumstances. The authors conclude that refugee crisis of 2014-2015 should induce European countries to rethink their migration policies. The «open door policy» and streams of refugees cause the overexertion of state’s potential to accommodate newcomers. The problem has already got a security dimension, so that more determined measures are necessary to be taken. British, French and other European governments should reestablish their priorities in favor of responsible and restrictive approach.

Drawing on recent insight in citizenship regime literature, this article develops a macrotheoretical framework for understanding social and political tolerance of ethnic minorities. The paper attempts to analyze and describe the French experience of the role of institutions, agents and practices of immigration control in the consolidation of the society with the mechanisms for participatory democracy. It is shown that the question of the role and position of migrants in the host societies actualize the development of specific social policy constructing the image of migrants, the development of the legislative base, controlling migration flows, mechanisms of their adaptation and integration into the host society. It is concluded that as a result of the implementation of the migration policy, France prefers to rely on the discursive approach, the priority of human rights, rather than security considerations - dialectical contradiction and interaction that can be observed in the analysis of migration policies in the EU as a whole.

The study suggests that the relationship between per capita GDP and intensity of antigovernment demonstrations is not negative as tends to be believed; we are rather dealing with an inverted U-shaped relationship: the highest levels of antigovernment demonstration intensity are typical for countries with neither the lowest nor the highest values of GDP per capita, but rather with intermediate values of this indicator. Thus, for higher values of per capita GDP we observe a negative correlation between GDP per capita and the antigovernment demonstration intensity, and for lower values it is positive. This correlation is partly explained by the following points: (1) GDP growth in authoritarian regimes leads to increased pro-democracy movement, and hence to intensifi cation of the anti-government demonstrations. And since in our database (as well as in reality) authoritarian states constitute a very high percentage of the number of states with the lowest values of per capita income, the effect of the growth of internal pressure on authoritarian regimes towards democracy with economic growth to some extent (but no not completely) explains a strong correlation between GDP per capita and the intensity of antigovernment demonstrations for low and middle income countries. (2) In the range of per capita GDP up to $ 20000, the increase in per capita GDP is quite strongly correlated with a decrease in the proportion of authoritarian regimes and the increasing share of nonauthoritarian regimes (democratic and intermediate). The presence of non-authoritarian regimes in this range is signifi cantly positively correlated with the higher intensity of anti-government demonstrations. This is another mechanism that contributes to the presence of a strong positive correlation between GDP per capita and the intensity of anti-government demonstrations in the range of interest to us. At the same time we have done a further analysis that has shown that both of the above mechanisms do not explain the correlation in question to the full, which means the need to find additional mechanisms and factors.

The emergence of geopolitical projects of association of the countries in the “Intermarium” dates back to the period after the First World War. In the era of the Cold War, some countries of the Baltic-Black Sea region were part of the Soviet Union, while others were Soviet satellites. Expansion of NATO and EU toward the East in post-bipolar period has resulted in strengthening of the position of the West in Central and Eastern Europe. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have turned into an outpost of the West on the border with Russia. Implementation of the “Eastern Partnership” project leads to increased infl uence of the EU in Ukraine and Moldova. Possible geoeconomic integration within the “Intermarium” is to be of low effi ciency. Belarus has a key strategic position in the region and is an ally of Russia. Potential threats that are emanate from the geopolitics of Russia in Eastern Europe, encourages countries of the Baltic-Black Sea region to develop new geopolitical projects in creating of defensive militarypolitical association. Contemporary neo-imperial geopolitics of the US in Europe is aimed at strengthening of its infl uence and provides, in particular, the support to projects of regional interstate associations, designed to “containment” of Russia. For the countries of the Western Europe geopolitical projects of integration associations in the Baltic-Black Sea region can be designed to form a “cordon sanitaire” for the isolation of Russia Ukraine is a most interested country in the implementation of the military-political project “Intermarium”. The potential militarypolitical association «Intermarium» will be fully functioned only under condition of preservation of the confrontation between the West and Russia.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of China's foreign policy through the prism of understanding the changes in its national interests as understood by the Chinese leadership. It includes a brief description of the approaches to the analysis of the national interests by Western authors and its comparison with the Chinese tradition. Analysis of China's foreign policy changes during the transition from the fourth to the fi fth generation of Chinese leaders is given through the tenets of the Chinese international relations scholar Yan Xuetong theory. The main conclusion of the article is that the recent assertiveness of the Chinese foreign policy is the result of country’s successes in achieving economic goals, which made it possible to shift priorities from providing economic growth to conquering the leading position in the world.

The article deals with the features of contemporary political development of Serbia, including the main areas of cooperation with the European Union (EU). Since the early 2000s the strategic priority of the country's foreign policy is participation in the European integration process, which is accompanied by support of consistent and pragmatic relations with the other key partners, primarily with Russia. The principle of multi-vector foreign policy has been developed since the fi rst half of the 2010s, but its use is treated with the lack of uniqueness by different social strata and political movements. Mechanisms of acceleration or slowing down the integration process are used by offi cial Brussels depending on the current aims and political conjuncture (for example, to weaken Russian infl uence in the country and in the region). However, despite the success achieved on the path to the EU accession and the favorable dynamics of negotiation process, the level of support of pro-European policy has been decreasing in Serbian society since the end of the 2000s. The main challenges of the near future, in addition to the growth of euroscepticism, include problems of institutional harmonization with the EU and the compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, the enforcement of the Brussels agreement with Pristina, as well as maintaining of balanced foreign policy.

In this article the author examines a number of foreign cases of practical realization of state youth policy for example the USA, Germany and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The choice of these cases is due to the fact that these countries have an extensive practice of state youth policy. The second factor in the choice of case studies is the fundamental difference between the political systems of countries and as a consequence of the institutional arrangements and the technological features of established models of state youth policy. And fi nally, the third factor is that these States represent different political and cultural traditions. These differences between the traditions have an impact on the diversity of the state youth policy (as the US are a classic example of Western «pluralist» system of youth policy; Germany – West European model of youth policy; Kazakhstan is a bright representative of an effective model of youth policy in the former Soviet Union). Special attention is given to General and specifi c features identified on the basis of comparative analysis, the study of foreign models of youth policy, as well as possible their application in the process of realization of the state youth policy of the Russian Federation.

The article is devoted to considering soft power as a new form of power within the modern political system. The emerging importance of the corresponding mechanisms which regulate social development would lead, on the one hand, to the growing competition between countries for an opportunity to promote their own agendas, and on the other hand, it would undermine state monopoly on internal communication and produce new risks for sovereignty. Non-state actors who are more fl exible and responsive to diversifi ed demands of civil society pretend to e capable to build an alternative for the contemporary state and world order. One of consequences is likeliness of a state to “mimicry” into civil society institutions to react early to emerging threats.