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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.

This article is devoted to English historian F.S. Northedge (1918-1985) and his role in the development conception of international society and English School of International relations in 1960-1980.

This school consists of small group of scientists and diplomats, who were well educated in elite British universities like Cambridge and Oxford. They were acquainted with each other personally. British Committee for the Theory of International Politics in 1960-1970 was the center for the study of International Society. Such composition of the school demonstrated aristocratic character of the International relations study as intellectual pursuit in United Kingdom. Meanwhile, such people like Charles Manning, Fred Northedge, Edward Carr and some other famous people, who usually were English School members, did not taken part in the British Committee due to different reasons.

Thus, F.S. Northedge was untypical participant of English school and his scientific heritage need to be studied. Key factors of his biography and his views on International Policy are studies in the article. "Diplomatic style", "System of the state" and "International society" were the central concepts in his works. He met with these ideas in the London School of economy, where Charles Manning, Martin Wight and Headley Bull – founders of English School - had worked at International relations chair in different time. The analysis of these categories let make conclusion that F. Northedge agreed with main ideas of English School of International relations. But at the same time he understood them very originally. His system of the views demonstrated that British Committee for the Theory of International Politics, but not London School of economy, was the main center for the development conception of International Society in 1960-1980.

Year 2019, the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, is of special value for our country. 150 years ago, in 1869, the outstanding Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev published the first scheme of the Periodic table of chemical elements. The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements draws the world community attention to the development of fundamental sciences, to deepening and expansion of education for sustainable development, to global problems that cannot be solved without active use of achievements of modern green chemistry. The quality of everyday life of present and future generations is directly connected with the progress and achievements of chemical science and technology. In 2019, the large-scale events dedicated to D.I. Mendeleev and his scientific heritage will take place both in Russia and throughout the world The International Year of the Periodic Table once again emphasizes the importance of the systematicity in our chaotic world. The System gives an opportunity to understand the idea of regularity and thus arms human beings with the ability to predict.

This is an overview of the reports presented at the International conference on Italian Languages, Literature, and Culture Alisovskiye chteniya held on February 20, 2023 at the Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University. The academic gathering celebrated the anniversary of Professor Alisova, a founder of the italianistics in Russia. More then 50 attendees included language, history, literary, art and cultural experts from Russia, Belarus and Italy

At the turn of the century, the rogue state concept has become an integral part of the theory of international relations. However, even contemporary approaches lack the appropriate academic tools to reach a comprehensive understanding of the international community's role in determining the normative frameworks of the proper behavior of the states as the main actors of international system, leaving the relations between global community and the rogues almost an uncharted territory on the international stage. The article considers the category of rogue states as "excluded" members of the international community through the sociological lens of "stigma" (E. Goffman) and "labelling theory" (H. Becker and E. Lemert). Engaging an empirical case of Iraqi foreign policy during and after the Gulf War 1991, the author demonstrates two thresholds of the labelling state as the rogue: public initiation of the offender and self-fulfilling prophecy. It is possible to define some specific features of the outsider's behavior on the international stage: the high level of cooperation among the representatives of the same category, "unsustainable bravado" as the set of fluid and inconsistent actions of the rogue state in foreign policy, finally, the tendency toward obtaining the "secondary gains". Contrariwise, global community tends to pay greater attention to rogue states and exercise some discrimination practices on the ground of their outcast position in the world normative structure with the category of "wise" actors, for example China, being an exception from the common mainstream and maintaining close cooperation ties with rogues.

The article is devoted to the «Trilemma» of the policy of the monetary authorities, or the «rule of impossible trinity». This policy compatibility rule, formulated more than 50 years ago, remains relevant today. Its reliability is generally confirmed by a number of empirical studies, although there are also suggestions on the need to adjust this economic and theoretical development. The corresponding discussion also affects the policy of the Bank of Russia (mega-regulator), which carries out inflation targeting in conditions of the free movement of cross-border capital and the use of a floating ruble exchange rate. Regarding the effectiveness of this policy, carried out in the presence of increased sensitivity of the Russian economy to external shocks, the authors express certain doubts.