Suchergebnisse

The author questions the indisputability of the Arctic's existing climate change assessments and insists on the need to adjust the Arctic strategies of states to different scenarios of such changes. While not denying the impact of human society on the Earth's climate, the author believes to be important not to limit research on its changes by exclusively natural-scientific aspects, but to include considerations concerning the influence of peculiarities of human society's development on the climate. He thinks it is important to take into account the combine impact of the changing nature of contemporary industrial activity, of sources for energy supply, the on-going processes of building of "smart" economy and its innovative development, demographic changes, improvement of human capital as well as the impact of increased environmental consciousness of human beings on the global and Arctic climate. Despite the observed climatic changes in the Arctic, it remains ice-covered the major part of the year. Any commercially justified human activities in the Arctic must be based on the need to maintain a year-round exploitation of its resources and possibilities and to create the appropriate infrastructure, machinery and equipment. The author comes to the conclusion that the need to resolve these problems requires considerable financial resources and time.

The possibilities and prospects of building a Common Economic Space (CES) between Russia and the EU in accordance to the "Road map", signed by the parties in 2005, are analyzed in this article. It outlines the economic essence of the different measures being undertaken within the EU and the benefits for countries and companies with high level of competitiveness on the EU markets, being gained from participation in the EU integration processes. The main elements of the European Economic Area (EEA), which has been created by the agreement between EU and EFTA in 1993, are examined as well as the rights and obligations of the parties involved. The author considers the peculiarities and consequences of participation of Central and Eastern European countries in the EU that prompted the European Union to initiate the "neighborhood policy" and Eastern partnership project for the Eastern Europe countries, which are not members of the EU. The author analyses the main purposes of the "neighbourhood policy", as they are outlined by the EU Directorate General for external affairs, as well as the possible consequences of their implementation for the states, included by the EU in its "circle of friends". On this background the possibilities and perspectives for the creation ofaCES between the EU and Russia with particular regard to the peculiarities of integration processes within the post-Soviet space are considered. The author concludes that the creation of a CES between the EU and Russia is hardly feasible on the grounds, envisaged by the EU.

The author analyzes the evolution of human rights and fundamental freedoms in domestic political life of individual states and in international relations as well over the latest two centuries. The article traces the role of struggle for liberal political human rights and civilian freedoms in the dismantling of the feudal-absolutist regimes as well as the challenges of radical left-wing (communist) and far right-wing (national-socialistic) threats to be met by the supporters of liberal political rights and civil freedoms in the interwar period. The list of human rights and fundamental freedoms had constantly been updating in the postwar period, including by the efforts of the UNO and other international organizations, and fixing in different international documents. The author emphasizes the import role of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in transforming the issues of human rights and fundamental freedoms into the essential element of public diplomacy of contemporary states. He traces the process of the increasing utilization of liberal political rights and civilian freedoms, which are usually the effective tools for domestic democratic transformation, within the framework of diplomatic practice of European and North-American states, aimed at ensuring their political and economic interests on the world stage. In this regard the author addresses the attempts of Western countries to legalize "humanitarian"interventions in circumvention of the UN Security Council. The article emphasizes the necessity to replenish the understanding of universal human rights and freedoms by the values, developed both by the international community within the framework of implementing the Millennium Development Goals and by various countries and peoples, which in sum constitute the modern international civilizational baggage.

The author argues that the emergence of the first permanent intergovernmental (IIGO) and non-governmental (INGO) organizationsin the second half of the XIX-th century was due to common causes. He tries to justify the need to consider them not as independent objects of study, but as the phenomenon, caused by the high level of internationalization of economic life of states and of socio-economic consequences of the industrial revolution, reached in this period. The emergence of IIGOs, based on international treaty, was accompanied by establishment of a large number of INGOs operating in similar fields of human activity, which performed supplementary functions and regulated areas of cooperation and public needs, not covered by interstate agreements. The article presents the main factors that in later stages of internationalization and development of contemporary international relations gave the impetus to emergence and development of international organizations, including the military-technological revolution, that gave birth to mass destruction weapons and avalanche-like growth of the number of human and material losses during wars and military conflicts, the Cold War between world communism and world capitalism, the collapse of the colonial system and formation ofa new main contradiction of the world politics between the "Club of rich countries" and states of the "global periphery", beginning of development of regional integration processes and, finally, the emergence of global problems. The article emphasizes that both IIGOs and INGOs evolved from the supportive tools in implementation of multilateral interaction of sovereign states towards becoming an integral part of contemporary international relations, fulfilling many vital functions of modern human society and its citizens. Given the involvement of the overwhelming majority of modern sovereign states and tens of thousands of civil society organizations in activity of numerical IIGOs and INGOs, none of the existing centers of world power can afford to trample down and to subordinate activities of all these international organizations. The development of IIGOs and INGOs makes any attempts to create a unipolar system of contemporary international relations impossible.

On the basis of analysis of integration processes between Nordic, Benelux countries and post-soviet states in Europe the author expresses hesitations in accepting the integration experiences gained by the EU as the criterion of efficiency and the pattern for the post-Soviet space. He does not consider that an involvement of all countries with market economy into processes of regional integration, if they do not try to achieve certain political aims through integration, is the universal regularity in the globalized world. In these cases neither free trade zones nor custom unions can be considered as integration stages, but they continue to be the tools for further development of trade. The author proposes to assess the EU evolution with regard to the legal norms of international organizations, where state sovereignty of members is strengthened, not given up to supernational bodies. In case the idea of reestablishment of an unified state on the remains of the former USSR, linked to the necessity to hand over the recently acquired sovereignty to it, is laid down to the ground for practical measures of integration, this kind of integration will hardly be attractive to the potential post-Soviet participants. This perspective is hardly desired for Russia either. The integration path of the EU reflects the peculiarities of the European situation and specific interests of its member states. Many details of the EU activity are not applicable to other integration groupings in Europe and membership criteria in every of them is not universal. Any efforts to construct integration processes in the post-Soviet space in accordance to the EU model without proper consideration to integration experiences of other countries and to political, economic, social, cultural, demographic, military peculiarities of the countries concerned seem to be not acceptable and founded.

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The article emphasizes that the Arctic Council (AC) is a high level forum of cooperation, based on taking decisions by consensus that are carried out by member states on a voluntary basis and in accordance with their national interests. The AC does not meet the criteria of a classical international intergovernmental organization – IGO and may not be referred to as an international non-governmental organization – INGO due to its members. The high performance of the AC activity in the absence of a complex organizational structure, any executive body and a court is rooted in respect for national sovereignty of its member states. This informal international organization of new type became the core, around which a significant group of states, IGOs and INGOs, that received observer status at the AC, is created. Within the framework of its activity innovative tools of financing of ongoing programs have been developed. Participation of other member states of the AC in the anti-Russian sanctions does not become an obstacle for continuation of the close cooperation of all Arctic states in addressing the major problems of common concern in the Arctic. During the sanctions they established the Arctic economic council, signed the agreements on cooperation between coastal guards of all Arctic states, on scientific cooperation in the Arctic and on preventing unregulated fishing in the central part of the Arctic ocean. Negotiations on possible new agreements are going on between them. The model of informal international cooperation, demonstrated by the Arctic Council, is being successfully implemented also in the activities of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Council of Barents/Euro-arctic Region, BRICS and other international organizations. This gave the authors the reason to conclude that this type of international organizations will be further developed in contemporary international relations.