International Affairs No. 1, 2020 – Table of Contents

Roundtable

Key words: strategic stability, arms control, arms reduction, Open Skies Treaty, New START Treaty, Dongfeng-5 family. …

Key words: global economic crisis, crisis of the globalization system, fourth industrial revolution, regionalization of economy, military risks.

In Lieu of an Introduction …

Key words: U.S.-China, Huawei, geopolitics, Nord Stream 2, Northeast Passage.

THE 20TH CENTURY went down in history as a century of ideologies and sharp confrontation of states belonging to different systems, the Soviet Union and the United States in the first place. The 21st century has already demonstrated a mounting geopolitical confrontation of great powers that drew international business interests into their whirlpool. It turned out that the main actors of world politics cannot agree on new principles of economic cooperation, free competition and respect for the spheres of interests – they have chosen the road of mounting worldwide tension. …

Key words: Islam, extremist organizations, jihad, Boko Haram, tribalism, Islamic ummah, OIC.

THE “LIMINALITY” and “re-lslamization” phenomena¹ caused by the split in the ranks of the Islamic theological elite into the moderate majority (minimalists) and radically minded minority (maximalists) [Waghid. 2011:5-8] came to the fore in some of the North African Arab countries and in many sub-Saharan countries with considerable Islamic populations. Radicalization of apart of the Islamic political elite betrays itself in a much greater political and military activity of Muslim maximalists and a much wider scope of activities of extremist Islamic organizations. …

Key words: political elite, Iraq, American politics, domestic political process, Iran.

Sources of American and Iranian Influence on the Political Elite of Iraq …

as a Threat to Host Societies:

The Case of Germany …

Key words: Russia, Italy, sanctions, trade and economic relations.

Question: How seriously are the anti-Russian sanctions supported by Italy, as well as Russia’s retaliatory restrictive measures, affecting bilateral cooperation? …

Key words: Russia, information security, information and communication technologies (ICTs), agreement on cooperation in the field of information security, Russian Security Council, meetings of senior security officials hosted by Nikolai Patrushev.

RUSSIA is a signatory to many multilateral cooperation agreements on international information security. They include the Agreement among the Governments of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Cooperation in the Field of International Information Security signed on June 16, 2009,¹ the Agreement among Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States on Cooperation in the Field of Information Security, November 20, 2013,² and the Agreement on Cooperation among Member States of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the Field of Information Security, November 30, 2017.³ …

Key words: historical-cultural prerequisites, Russian-Chinese relations, conglomeration, multiculturalism, societal links, modernization, prospects of cooperation.

NORMALLY, the historical-cultural aspect of social-political processes is not treated as an item of top priority of the scholarly agenda. More likely than not, researchers tend to look for the sources of what is going on in economic conditions or political ambitions of individuals or communities and let out of sight one important component, i.e., the cultural foundation of societal systems which is rooted in a distant past. …

Key words: Venezuela, Washington dominance, Monroe doctrine, Pan-Americanism.

SINCE ITS FOUNDING, Venezuela has been a country of solidarity, with the conscience of belonging to something greater, an immense nation, a power in the making that, had it consolidated itself legally, economically, and politically, it would have modified the “universal equilibrium,” the balance of power in international relations. Venezuela’s only military action outside of its borders was inevitably tied to its original right to self-determination as a sovereign people. Our soldiers reached inhospitable landscapes of Our America, always with the intention of expanding the feat of independence, with no aim for profit or glory or nothing different from the liberation from the imperial dominance of those times. Our leaders and armies of then never aspired to loot or conquer territories for themselves. The only cause was to share liberty, acquire independence, and simply, being free. …

Key words: Republic of Crimea, education, school, Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages, native languages.

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his Address to the Russian Federal Assembly in connection with the accession of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation and the formation of new constituent entities within the Russian Federation (March 18, 2014) was met with applause: “We have great respect for people of all ethnic groups living in Crimea. It is their common home, their motherland, and it would be right for Crimea – I know Crimeans support this – to have three equal official languages: Russian, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar.” …

Key words: C-MIMUN, model United Nations (MUN), Russian foreign policy, Russian soft power.

What Is C-MIMUN? …

Key words: Russia, image, foreign policy, international relations, foreign states.

IMAGES OF OBJECTS or phenomena in people’s minds may be spontaneous and uncontrolled but may also be shaped by careful methods. …

Key words: Russia-Africa summit, partnership, cooperation.

THE FIRST Russia-Africa summit, which took place on October 23 and 24, 2019 in Sochi, was one of the most important foreign policy events of the outgoing year (the present authors had the privilege to attend this important international forum). Russia hosted a successful top-level meeting and established dialogue with an entire continent. The summit was attended by delegations from all 54 African states. Moscow took advantage of the occasion to deliver its message: “Russia is returning to Africa.” And it is returning as a good old friend, as well as a reliable and time-tested partner. …

Key words: Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, African Union, Russia-Africa summit.

Question: Irina Olegovna, Africa is a vast continent that is potentially very important for Russia and highly significant for global politics. After a long hiatus, a major forum took place in Sochi, bringing together representatives from 54 African states. During the forum, almost all media outlets widely discussing Russia’s return to Africa. However, the same remarks were made 10 years ago during then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s tour of Africa. What has changed during these years? …

Key words: Ambassador A.F. Dobrynin, cooperation in outer space, Caribbean crisis, Henry Kissinger, Soyuz-Apollo program.

ANATOLY DOBRYNIN’S unprecedentedly long (24 years) mission as head of the Soviet Embassy to the United States and the fast scientific and technological developments in the sphere of space research can become the subjects of many articles. This article is limited by the period between the early 1960s when he was appointed Ambassador to the United States and the first Soviet-American “handshake in space” in 1975 that opened the road toward practical international cooperation in outer space. Here I will only partially touch on the immeasurably big contribution of scientists into tuning up the Soviet-American relations in this sphere. …

Key words: Time of Troubles, Rzeczpospolita, siege of Mikhaylov, Metropolitan Macarius, Herman Sahaydachniy.

THE 17TH CENTURY began as a time of trials for the Russian people. Contemporaries spoke of it as the Time of Troubles, or Smutnoe Vremya (smuta in Russian literally means “turmoil”).¹ This term went down in the history of Russia and Russian historiography as a definition of the time when, in the late 16th century, the ruling dynasty ended. For the first time in its history, Russia acquired elected czars and impostors. This was the prelude to foreign (Swedish and Polish) interventions, as a result of which the Russian state lost part of its territories. …

Key words: Moldavia, House of Romanov, Russo-Turkish wars, Russian Empire, Prut-Dniester region.

ONE of the most important events in the development of Russian-Moldavian relations took place in the early 18th century in Istanbul where Russian Ambassador and resident of the Russian intelligence in Istanbul Pyotr Tolstoy met Dimitrie Cantemir, member of the Moldavian intellectual elite. According to the report compiled by the Russian diplomatic mission in the Turkish capital, Dimitrie Cantemir, born in 1673, graduate of the Academy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was a son of the Moldavian Hospodar (ruler) Constantin Cantemir. As a teenager, he had been separated, according to the “Oriental etiquette” and contrary to his will, from his parents and sent to Istanbul as a hostage at the court of the Turkish sultan. …

Key words: Slovakia, Slovak National Uprising (SNP), World War II, 75th anniversary, partisans.

ON AUGUST 29, 2019, Slovakia celebrated the 75th anniversary of the start of one of the most powerful European anti-Nazi insurrections of World War II, the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenské narodné povstanie), which lasted from August 29 to October 28, 1944. August 29, Slovak National Uprising Anniversary, is one of the country’s main national holidays. It is marked with events and ceremonies such as commemorative rallies and the laying of flowers at memorials in Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, and other parts of Slovakia. …

Key words: civil unrest in Timişoara, Warsaw Treaty, NATO.

CIVIL UNREST in Timişoara in December 1989 became the detonator in the explosive sociopolitical situation that had taken shape in Romania by the end of the 1980s. Nicolae Ceauşescu reacted in a resolute and uncompromising way – the disturbances had to be suppressed at any cost. They weren’t an ordinary expression of discontent. There had been developments in Romania’s neighborhood that were endangering the country’s leadership: in the Soviet Union perestroika was gaining momentum with its new wave of revisions of the past, including the roles of former leaders, and setting a bad example to communist parties in other countries. …

Key words: V. Lavrov, A. Gromyko, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Malcolm MacDonald.

V.S. LAVROV received his last appointment as Soviet ambassador to Turkey, where he worked from 1983 until 1987. …

Key words: P.V. Palievsky, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, literary scholar, thinker.

PYOTR VASILIEVICH PALIEVSKY, literary scholar and critic, well-known in Russia and beyond, passed away in Moscow on October 8th, 2019, at the age of 87. For more than 60 years, Palievsky worked at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His foremost areas of research interest included literary theory, world literature, and Russian classics. …

Key words: BRICS countries media systems, media research, media studies, national specifics of media systems, development prospects.

AMID the growing economic and political tensions in the world, the role of the international community of the BRICS countries is increasing. Its activity can help establish a new world order based on the principles of equality, noninterference in the domestic affairs of other states, respect for sovereignty and independent decision-making. This approach should facilitate the full-fledged development of the five countries’ economic potential despite the existing political, social, economic, historical, and cultural differences between them. …

Key words: Geneva, Switzerland, Natalya Beglova.

I AM HOLDING a new book by Natalya Beglova. It is a wonderful book! I have long been following the author’s work and have always been amazed by the versatility of her talent as a writer, which she undoubtedly inherited as a precious gift from her father, Spartak Beglov, a journalist and writer on current political and public issues. …