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One of the achievements of the reflectivist turn in international relations theory in the late 20th century was the attention given to the role of discourse and other ideational factors in international politics. In recent years, however, approaches critical of the discursive emphasis in international studies have emerged, seeking to restore the significance of non-discursive aspects of international relations such as geography, technology, and the non-human. This article offers a perspective on the development of international relations theory from the standpoint of the debate between materialism and idealism. Within this framework, it provides a brief overview of the historical evolution of international relations theory and subsequently delves into a detailed analysis of three strands of the new wave of materialist theorizing in the field - critical realism, new materialism, and neoclassical geopolitics. The article suggests considering the new materialist wave as, on the whole, a positive development, but also points out the necessity of taking into account the risk of "exiling" the human element from international relations research as such concepts proliferate. The possibility of collaboration between reflecivists and post-reflecivists, as well as between idealists and materialists in general, is underlined for the comprehensive study of contemporary international realities.

The article proposes a rationale to expand the concept of humanitarian diplomacy. Based on scientific research, the author proposes to escape from a narrow understanding of humanitarian diplomacy as providing humanitarian assistance and assistance to vulnerable groups of the population. An attempt is made to form a single umbrella concept of diplomacy, which would include all types of modern diplomacy that are aimed at protecting a person, his values of ideals.

The given research paper presents an attempt to analyze the Caspian region from the point of view of its cross-border specifics. In contrast to the traditional understanding of the Caspian region as the region of heightened geopolitical significance the authors analyze its peculiarities and potential in the context of the cross-border cooperation dynamics. It is especially emphasized that the Caspian region may be considered as a cross-border region which, despite the substantial similarities is different from international transnational regions. The authors focus attention on a key contradiction of the Caspian region. On the one hand, national interests and foreign policy of the states-members of the Caspian region (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) have a national country and regional importance, since their implementation will form an effective regional security system. On the other hand, the Caspian region attracts the attention of the world powers, becoming a subject of their interest, as it is of great importance for world energy markets and has status of a transit zone between Europe and Asia. For Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan the Caspian status is combined with their most important characteristic of post-Soviet states - shared long historical stage of development within the Soviet Union. The article distinguished and analyzed four main periods of establishment of cross-border cooperation in the Caspian region. The national specificity of modernization reforms in all the countries of the Caspian region have interrelations with further development of cross-border cooperation, the priority of that performs convergence of Caspian states on a number of strategic issues, including economic cooperation and security. (author's abstract)

The paper defines the main approaches to understanding the strategic partnership between states in the international arena, identifies the main features of such a partnership. The author substantiates the thesis that at present the strategic partnership between states in the social, spiritual and cultural sphere is no longer of a secondary nature. The article defines the main directions of strategic partnership between states in the social, spiritual and cultural sphere at the present stage. The concept of changing the vector of Russia in the social, spiritual and cultural sphere at the present stage is substantiated.

The article presents a comparative analysis of Master's programs of four leading Russian universities with those offered by top globally recognized universities (from QS, RePec, Best US News university rankings). Foreign universities' programs show a significant domination of public administration, public politics or public economics to the detriment of financial component. Out of 130 universities the author identifies only about 10 relevant programs with valuable and substantial public finance components. Russian master's programs are on a par with globally recognized programs, which provide a solid basis to easily adapt them for international students. The article contains references to top universities' programs and courses, English variants of disciplines and their Russian analogs that make the article useful for upgrading the Russian programs.