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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.

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.

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 constitutional reforms in Russia are amongst the most significant news for Russia's partners in international relations. The configuration of international law and Russian domestic legal order falls within the scope of the constitutional changes of 2020, and there is no chance that this change will be abandoned by the legislator. This particular amendment was not actively commented on during the nationwide discussion on the constitutional reform; it drew mostly experts' attention. The article alleges that the constitutional amendment restricting the applicability of international case law in Russia is both a transient response to the instant political tension around Russia, and a formalization of the positivistic trend well established in domestic judicial practice. The positivistic trend is part of the process shaping Russia's own approach to international law. The prospective amendment concerning international case law in the Constitution of the Russian Federation will not hinder the rules expressly stated in the treaties of the EAEU. However, the resolutions of the EAEU's structures and institutions, including the case law of the Court of the EAEU, are likely to be scrutinized in a defensive way by Russian Constitutional court in situations extraordinary for the Russian State, ensuring their conformity with the unquestionable and unconditional supremacy of the Russian Constitution.

This article examines the impact of financial crisis of 2008-2009 on allocation of development aid. Using OECD data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation for international development by key donor countries, authors test three hypotheses: first, general impact of crisis on ODA allocation; second, impact of crisis on three recipient income groups; third, impact of crisis on relative importance of analyzed factors for ODA allocation decisions. The results show that general impact of crisis on ODA volumes was negative, although donors preferred to increase aid to low-income countries. Impact of factors describing economic situation in donor countries (public debt level, government expenditures and donor growth) increased after crisis. Donor countries might make use of these results to increase efficiency of their development assistance strategies, whereas recipient countries may exploit these results in order to attract more external financing for development.

The article deals with the complex and controversial problems of the new regional communities' formation and the impact of the interethnic relations sphere on them. The author notes that the processes of interaction between representatives of different cultures and civilizations, ethnic groups and religions have become increasingly controversial and tense in the context of continuous social dynamics. Similarly to the Russian society as a whole, regional communities are in a state of transitivity. They get transformed, they acquire new qualities such as multicasting and heterogeneity, multi-ethnicity and multi-confessionalism, fragmentarity and multiculturality.

This fact increases the risks and uncertainties, problematizes future prospects. National non-governmental organizations are increasingly positioning themselves as civil society institutions at the present stage of social development at the regional level. They perform a difficult dual task: on the one hand, they ensure the preservation and development of history, native language, culture, ethnic traditions, and on the other hand, they work on the integration, on the common identity and the Russian nation formation.

On the territory of the Volgograd region, largely due to the active cooperation of regional authorities and local authorities with national public associations, international and inter-confessional relations are stable. The basis of such activity is respect for history, native language, culture, tradition, religion, national dignity of all people in the region, regardless of their belonging to a certain ethnic group or religion. Over two decades of accumulated considerable experience of joint inter-ethnic dialogue and cooperation, provided tolerance and peace, harmony and mutual understanding between people of different ethnicities and religions in the country.

Статья посвящена актуальной проблеме определения процессов, связанных с энергетическими аспектами в международных отношениях (в том числе и на региональных уровнях). Отмечено, что наиболее остро энергетические отношения между государствами проявляются в международных энергетических конфликтах (МЭК). Особенностью структуры которых является то, что в качестве одного из вероятностных элементов в составе каждой противоборствующей стороны находиться жертва, которая возникает либо в ходе конфликта, либо вне конфликта, и может стать причиной или поводом для его начала. Из анализа структуры МЭК сделаны соответствующие выводы.

The article is devoted to the study of methods of combating coronavirus infection in the Republic of Armenia in the context of international cooperation. Attention is focused on the interaction of country with international organizations to overcome the pandemic in the country. This paper presents the author's table based on the analysis of the mass media in order to summarize the full range of cooperation between the Government of Armenia and external actors during the COVID-19. The article emphasizes the importance of creating an anti-crisis committee to combat coronavirus, as well as the need to increase funding for the health system.

The article presents the overview of International Scientific Conference «The Russian Systematic Reconstruction as a Strategic Inevitability: Neoeconomic, Neoindustrialization, Neodirigizm», which had taken place at 5—7 of December 2016 on Faculty of Economics of MSU. The questions of fundamental understanding of the state national economy of Russia during structural crisis, search the main directions of Russian social economic reconstruction for strengthen Russian economy, the need and the prospects of «soft mobilization» were discussed at this conference.

Today, digital diplomacy tools are used by governments in many countries in their efforts to build effective collaboration with an international audience. However, sometimes digital interaction with the audience takes forms unusual for the traditional understanding of diplomatic communication. For example, the use of humor in social networks is becoming the new reality of official diplomacy. It is not surprising that diplomats use humor to attract a foreign audience, but at the same time, this affects the formation of the country's image. Little is known about the humorous interaction between official state actors and their target audience. The role of such communication in building the country's image has not been studied. This paper analyzes the ability of humorous interaction between government officials and the target audience through digital communication channels to influence the formation of stereotypes regarding the country's image. Methodologically, this study is a two-component content analysis of the news media and the Russian embassy Twitter account in London. The goals for which official state representatives use humor in the communication process are specified in the paper. In addition, the study attempts to analyze the basic components of the «image of the country» complex construct and to trace the role that humour plays in the formation of this image. The most obvious conclusion from this study is that a positive image of Russian humor is being formed among the followers of the Russian Embassy's Twitter account. This perception outweighs the negative stereotypes about Russian humour broadcast by the press.