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In the article the authors analyze the change of French principles of participation in international conflicts after the new edition of White Book in 2013. Each White Book presents the aims and perspectives of the French defense policy development. The first one was published in 1972 during the Cold War and the next one in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the major role in conflicts resolution was taken by UNO. The 21st century brings new challenges and threats as well as new methods of conflicts resolution taking into account their new nature and development. In the article we analyze new principles of conflicts resolution elaborated by Francois Holland, the book was published in 2013. The core principles of the previous Book (elaborated by N. Sarkozy) included the activation of the French role on the world arena and reduction of the military forces. But now taking into account that the majority of crises are international and involve different parties and countries, France focuses on collaboration with the other countries especially with the members of NATO. As an example the authors investigate policy of the French government in the operations in Mali and Libya where France plays the leading role. Both conflicts are not resolved and are going to become permanent. So, as it takes more forces and expenses, the French government tries to bring in more countries-allies to settle the issue.

This thesis addresses the puzzle of heterogeneous trends in paramilitary violence in the two Colombian regions since the beginning of DDR process in 2003. The usual explanations derived from political conflict theories are improved with insights from organized crime research. The author argues that the occasional escalation of post DDR paramilitary violence at sub-regional level cannot be explained with the weakness of the state argument. In order to support this claim, the paper demonstrates the counter intuitive evidence that paramilitary violence correlates positively with the incidence of the state repressive intervention against paramilitary groups. More specifically, the paper finds that the paramilitaries challenged by the state use more violence either as a way of substituting their non-violent resources most affected by law enforcement activities, or in response to crackdown-related intensification of predatory tendencies within their respective organizations. Implications for future conflict resolution of Colombian Civil War are considered.

Già prima della Seconda Guerra Mondiale era possibile individuare i primi movimenti per la ricerca scientifica sulla pace sotto il cappello della polemologia, ma è solo in seguito alla Seconda Guerra Mondiale che la Peace Research divenne un filone di studi autonomo volto alla prevenzione di una guerra nucleare o di ulteriori conflitti devastanti per l'umanità. La questione del 'disarmo' è pertanto un tema centrale del dibattito sulla pace di questo periodo. Ma è a partire dagli anni Settanta che un nuovo approccio, più maturo e più poliedrico, alla materia inizia a farsi strada. Si entra così nella seconda fase dello sviluppo degli studi per la pace in cui l'attenzione si concentra non più su un significato di ʻpace' (negativa) come stato dei rapporti internazionali antitetico allo stato di guerra, ma su una lettura della stessa come 'assenza di violenza' (sia essa diretta, strutturale o culturale). Una pace instaurabile soltanto attraverso un radicale cambiamento sociale, lo sviluppo politico ed economico e l'eliminazione delle disuguaglianze. La Peace Research oggi si interroga sul tipo di relazioni internazionali necessarie per prevenire, mitigare o risolvere conflitti violenti con un occhio ai problemi posti dall'economia globalizzata, dal diritto internazionale e alla sicurezza nazionale. Interessante in tal senso è l'apporto dato dalla Peace Economics intesa come progettazione della pace in prospettiva economica e sociale.

The Nordic Region offers innovative interpretative approaches and models to overcome the "dilemma between security and prosperity". In this region, integration and fragmentation have been well-balanced and grounded on diversity. The first aim of this article is to explain the reasons for peace in Nordic Europe, a task sometimes more difficult than explaining wars. Historical cases of pacific resolution of disputes and the possible reasons for those policies are considered. Finally, the theoretical foundations of these approaches and how they influenced the political institutions are also analyzed.

This article is dedicated to the studying of the Madrid Peace Conference significance in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict settlement. The end of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1990s had a huge impact on the system of international relations and the Arab-Israeli conflict as well. The US an the USSR both worked together to gather Israelis an Arabs in one place for the purpose of negotiating. Thus they took part in the Madrid Peace Conference 1991. From the beginning Israeli position was more strong than Arabs one mainly because of the American bias in favor of Israel. Meanwhile, the USSR was on the edge of collapse and couldn't organize a comprehensive support for Arabs as Soviets did it before. Furthermore, each sides tried to lead the process of negotiations in their favor because both the Arabs and the Israelis expected different results of this conference. In the end, all participants were fed up with pointless discussions. Multilateral track of negotiations brought nothing. The same went with bilateral tracks. To sum it up, the «Madrid formula» of negotiations didn't fulfill the expectations. But at the same time, it prepared the base of further secret negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians in Oslo. Thus broking psychological barriers between these two sides was the main goal of the Madrid Peace Conference 1991.

Статья состоит из четырех частей. В первой части анализируется мандат СММ и его ограничения, а также некоторые дебаты о возможных расширениях или альтернативах Миссии. Во второй части освещаются специфический характер и последующие вызовы СММ по сравнению с другими миссиями ОБСЕ. В третьей части обсуждается вопрос об эффективности деятельности Миссии с разграничением позитивных и критических оценок наблюдателей с течением времени. В четвертой и последней части приводится краткий анализ влияниятрех основных участников конфликта - Российской Федерации, Украины и представителей двух донбасских де-факто образований (т. н. "ДНР" и "ЛНР") - на деятельность СММ. В заключении мы извлекаем некоторые предварительные уроки для будущего подобного рода миссий

This article presents the analysis of the US involvement in the process of providing indirect military and other kinds of support to the Afghan mujahedeens. The author also presents a brief overview of the main methods and means of US military aid to the Afghan rebels in the 1980s, as well as a detailed consideration of the process of providing such assistance. The author identifies three stages in the process of interaction between the US administration and the US intelligence agencies, on the one hand, and the Afghan insurgency, on the other hand: the first stage (1978-1979) refers to introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, where the US assistance to Afghan rebels was extremely cautious and measured; the second stage (1980) is marked by a considerable build-up of military assistance to Mujahedeens, but the United States sought to conceal their participation in this process; and during the third stage (since the election of Ronald Reagan up to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan), the assistance to Mujahedeens increased in several times, and the US stopped hiding this fact. The author briefly discusses the role and place of such countries slong with the US as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and so on in the structure of rendering support to the Afghan Mujahideens. The author also studies the US role in Afghanistan's transformation into a "nest" for cultivating Islamic extremists.

This article makes a study of the actions of different groups of civilians during the Battle of Khasan Lake. The research was carried out on the basis of the data from the Archive of Primorsky Krai and National Institute for Defense Studies of Ministry of Defense (Japan). This article analyses the difference in the attitude and involvement of the civilians and armies of both Japan and the USSR. The citizens of the Soviet Union provided tremendous assistance to the Red Army. In particular, collective farmers, workers, women helped to carry ammunition, provided care, supplied the Red Army with food. The ethnic Koreans, the Manchus, the Japanese, the white emigrants from Russia formed a multi-national state in Manchukuo on the Japanese territories. None of them strived to help Japanese army except white emigrants. However, the others supported the Japanese only in words but not in deeds, for example, the ethnic Koreans escaped from a place of hostilities. The behaviour of the civilians of the USSR and Manchukuo makes it clear that in the eyes of the inhabitants of the Russian Far East this conflict was perceived as a Patriotic War, whereas the civilian population of the Japanese territories did not feel involvement in this conflict. The difference in perception and action of civilians in the Japanese territories and the USSR is studied in this article.