Suchergebnisse

The article centers on the political aspects of international news making, i.e. the coverage of major political news by global media. Nowadays we are witnessing rising interest towards the modus operandi of global media, its newly-acquired functions and its role as a world politics actor. In this study new empirical data is used to assess the role global media plays in the representation of major civil conflicts and to revisit the commonly-accepted understanding of its political functions. With the help of discourse analysis, the authors investigate the realities of the civil wars in Libya and Syria through the lens of their representations in international news, the aim being to unveil the influence of the existing social frames on the pertinent media content.

This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the perception of high corruption levels in a country and examines the potential existence of spatial dependence in the distribution of these factors. It specifically focuses on exploring the interdependence between the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and forty four other factors categorized into six distinct categories. The central hypothesis posits that the interdependence between the CPI and these factors is more pronounced at the domestic level compared to its influence on indicators in neighboring countries. To assess the degree of interdependence between the CPI and each of the other indicators, the Pearson's Coefficient of Determination is employed, enabling an evaluation of corruption levels based on domestic state-specific factors. Furthermore, Moran's Bivariate Spatial Autocorrelation Index is utilized to elucidate the extent to which the CPI in one country influences one of the forty-four indicators in neighboring countries. Additionally, the Index of Spatial Interdependence is employed to ascertain the significance of domestic and international factors for each indicator. The research findings provide several noteworthy conclusions. Firstly, the neighborhood effect proves to be particularly significant for indicators that hold universal relevance for all governments, such as demographic and standard of living indicators. Conversely, indicators influenced by institutional, historical, and cultural differences exhibit stronger interrelations within the state. Lastly, the study establishes that the Pearson's Index holds greater significance than the Bivariate Moran's Index of Spatial Autocorrelation and the Index of Spatial Interdependence, thereby confirming the proposed hypothesis.

Received 23.03.2020. Security studies are going through a new stage of development. The 20th century was marked by scientific discussions about globalization itself and its possible impact on international security, the need to adjust concepts and methodologies. Many modern challenges are a direct consequence of increased global interdependence. At the same time, global attention is shifting towards regions, because the processes originating there can explain and determine the structure of international security. In turn, it is vital to adopt the knowledge and methodology of regional studies and political geography to avoid the "territorial trap". In our opinion, international studies are still missing the importance of spatiality and its influence on the world political system. Regardless the importance of geographical factor and the fact that in some way it determines the vector of the world political system development, spatiality is often overlooked. "Thinking in the space" is a skill necessary for any researcher. Spatiality is not just a set of geographical characteristics, but something more integral. Therefore, to understand international security and prospects for its further development, we need a comprehensive approach taking a wide range of factors into account. Moreover, an important problem of modern international security is the lack of comprehensive security studies at the global level that take into account the factor of space and regionalization. The research identifies Regional Security Complexes using cluster analysis of k-means. A spatial autocorrelation analysis is used to justify found systems, which consider the mutual influence of countries on each other. In a nutshell, it can explain regionalization of international security and the role of spatial factor in this process, create methodological framework for further analysis of Regional Security Complexes. Acknowledgements. The article has been supported by the grant of the IIS MGIMO No. 1921-01-09 "Geopolitical Atlas of the Modern World: Cartograms Modelling, Multidimensional Scaling and Determination of Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation in World Politics".

In the post-pandemic years of 2021–2022, the post-Soviet space has entered a stage of decisive transformation, which will test the maturity of the state institutions formed 30 years ago for the region's countries. The study captures a snapshot of public sentiment in these countries on the eve of this wave of transformation it is based on a series of largescale opinion polls in Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan, conducted immediately after the last elections to the lower houses of the parliaments of these countries in the pre-crisis era. The main research question of the sociological study was to identify demographic and geographical patterns in determining the attitude of voters toward the prospects for relations with Russia. Countries with traditionally different strategies of relations with Russia were taken: Belarus is a strategic ally, Kazakhstan is friendly but pursues a multi-vector policy, and Georgia is generally hostile at the level of the political class. The analysis showed that in matters of orientation towards positive relations with Russia, the voters of these countries nevertheless had more in common than differences. Based on the analysis results, several lines of delimitation can be distinguished. Firstly, the "macro-regional, geopolitical" line runs between Belarus and Kazakhstan, on the one hand, and Georgia, on the other. The second split along the "center-periphery" line takes place within states, i.e., Such a demarcation was singled out by many researchers, singled out concerning Russia; however, we found the same demarcations in Belarus ("Minsk and the rest of the country") partly in Georgia and Kazakhstan. Finally, the authors admit to it the possibility of delimitation along the north-south lines: in Georgia and, to some extent, in Kazakhstan, as a result of territorial differentiation in the residence of Russians in the northern regions of the republic, where sympathy for Russia is more clearly manifested than in the southern regions remote from it; and this demarcation is less pronounced in Belarus, where it refers to the regions bordering Russia and Ukraine.

The article covers the concept of "capitaleness" and "geographical identity". Our research will make an attempt to analyze an institute of capitals at functional as well as symbolic levels. In that case capitals serve not only as a place to dispose the governmental bodies, but their functions include national representation to themselves and the environment. Capitals are the idealized image of nation and national history, a sort of nation in miniature. Interregional differentiation within a state through establishing and maintaining mental boundaries between center and periphery is the mechanism to detect the territories needing the support for preserving the compliance with national norms and, thereafter, maintaining stateness. Two major territorial bases of stateness are traditionally singled out: nation-building and threats to security or, in other words, mental boundaries marking of "Us" community and actualization of "Others". Contemporary political geography is turning to the study of the third mechanism - internal "Other". Two strategies are possible to prove that interregional differentiation is a mechanism of nation-building. Analysis of different discursive and institutional practices marginalizing regions would be logical. However such way leads us to the large number of cases differing from each other in the multitude of variables and, therefore, exclude generalization in the conclusions. Thereupon we consider it possible to address another strategy, such as the search for evidence that center is purposefully opposed to periphery and is given symbolic national and centrifugal functions as well as administrative ones. The existence of one dichotomic pole should confirm the existence of the opposite. There are three cases - of Staraya Ladoga, Myshkin and Kasimov - which interpret differently the peculiarities of geographical space. Besides, the authors give illustrative examples of the construction of the myth about "stolichnost" and describe the instruments of symbolic politics.