The article examines the foreign activity of the Canadian Frenchspeaking province of Quebec, aimed at protecting and promoting the French language in the world. It is noted that it was significantly influenced by a specific linguistic situation in Quebec, whose inhabitants had for a long time been fighting for their linguistic rights. Of particular importance was the proclamation of the French language as the sole official language of the province of Quebec. In 1974 and 1977, respective laws have been adopted in Quebec, and the policy of francisation and aménagement linguistique has been launched. There is also a link between the process of national building that has been developing in Quebec since the early 1960s and the development of its external relations, which were aimed not only at achieving material benefits from cooperation with foreign partners (economic paradigm), but also at promoting the Quebec culture, identity and the French language (identification paradigm) on the international arena. The driving force behind the latter was Franco-Canadian / Quebec nationalism. The article focuses on the linguistic component of the Quebec-French “privileged partnership”, which has been carried on for more than half a century. It considers both separate programs aimed at solving specific  problems (developing common terminology, common norms, etc.), and the role of the language in bilateral Quebec-French contacts in general. The author also focuses on the relations between Quebec and other French-speaking countries and regions and its activities in the bodies of La Francophonie. The article analyzes the Quebec perception of international francophone cooperation. It is shown that Quebec consistently goes in for overcoming its francocentric  character, treating French as an asset of the whole world, and not as an instrument of French politics. It is concluded that for Québec the protection of the French language and its promotion in the world are of much greater importance than for France. 

The article deals with the ways of how Russia’s image has evolved in the New York Times’ editorials for eight years (January 1, 2010 –December 31, 2017) – before the 2014 events in Ukraine and the 2016 American presidential race and after. The goal of the research is to understand what drives American journalists in their attempts to create the image of the other country, what impact the Kremlin’s foreign and domestic policy has on the ways of how Russia is seen in American media, whether the standards of U.S. journalism are changing amidst the information warfare, which journalists launched against President Donald Trump and Russia. To reach these goals, the author conducts the content analysis of the newspaper’s columns, explains the reasons of why Russia’s image has been changed in a historical context and analyzes the factors that determine the current agenda of the newspaper. The novelty of the article adds up to the fact that the author presents a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the materials of America’s mainstream media outlet for a long period of time; he also comes up with the tonality- and topic-based original classification of the New York Times’ editorials; finally, the researcher shows how the image of Russia has evolved through the lens of an American respected newspaper as well as theorizes about the aspects of the U.S. modern columnism.

The role of emotions in international relations has long been out of sight of those who carried out research on international relations and foreign policy. In the early 2000s, thanks to the large-scale integration of social constructivism in this field of research, the situation started changing. The analysis of emotions in international relations allows to expand our knowledge of the process of identity construction, the social hierarchy among political groups, national and supranational communities, and also take a fresh look at the development of a state foreign policy, which is transformed into the
design field for “Itself” and “Others”.
The existing works on this topic can be divided into two categories, aimed at using macro and micro-approaches. As part of the macro-approach, researchers are developing a theory about the nature and functions of political emotions. In turn, the micro-approach allows studying emotions in specific political situations, their influence on political behavior and political processes. The article is intended to characterize the landmark methodological  works that have recently appeared in Western historiography.

Unlike the Quebec community, the Acadian ethno-cultural community in Canada is a minority and is threatened by linguistic and cultural assimilation. Since the 1960s nationalistic ideas started becoming more popular in the Acadian society, and, as a result, they have been reflected in the program of the Acadian Party.
The issues of nationalism and separatism in the French-speaking minorities of Canada have never been the subject of a special scientific research in the Russian historiography This article for the first time in Russian Canadian studies considers issues related to the political and ethno-cultural transformations in the Acadian society in the second half of the 20th century. So these problems are discussed for the first time in the Canadian studies in Russia. The article focuses mainly on tracing the historical path of the Acadian Party and to revealing the significance of an autonomist project for the Francophone population of New Brunswick. To this end the article makes use of the historical, political, ethnographic, socio-anthropological and interdisciplinary analysis based on the principles of historicism, systemic and scientific objectivity. The project proposed by the Acadian radicals turned out to be politically immature and unclaimed both by the elite and by the electorate. The reasons for that, in the author’s opinion, are the excessive radicalism that repulsed most of the Acadians, and the lack of support from the Quebec separatist groups.With that an experience of peaceful settlement of ethnic and political conflicts, proposed by the Acadians as a minority, is extremely relevant both for the Canadian province of Quebec and for a number of European countries (Belgium, France, Switzerland and Spain) as well as for the Russian Federation minorities. 

The article discusses the emergence of American studies in the Soviet Union (Amerikanistika) as a special expert-analytical discipline in the 1950s–1960s using a social constructivist approach. The author attempts not only to write the history of A American studies, but for the first time to comprehend it as a phenomenon and factor of the “cold war” using the socio-constructive approach and the analysis of the socio-political demand for expert- academic knowledge in the USSR in the second half of the 1950s and 1960s.
This demand shaped the Soviet American studies in a particular way: it was focused simultaneously on both academic and practical knowledge. American studies has constructed a certain image of the American “Other”. That image was subsequently used in the development of foreign policy towards the United States and in domestic policy to construct a Soviet identity different from the American “Other”. Studying the processes of academic construction of the United States and the use of the construct contribute to better understand the features of the Soviet-American relations in a bipolar world. 

The article deals with the forms of government transformation in the post-Soviet states (Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia) in the direction of parliamentarization. Using neoinstitutional and comparative research methods, the author analyses the causes for this transformation and the degree of its influence on the political process.
It is shown that as a result of the changes, the presidents of Georgia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan have lost the most important powers, although they have retained the status of the heads of state. The parliamentary electoral system in all the three states was replaced by a fully proportional one. The conclusion is made that the changes in the government management forms and the electoral system were initiated by the ruling elites and are aimed not so much at improving the efficiency of public administration, as at retaining the power. However, in Armenia and Georgia  parliamentarization had an “toppling” effect on the ruling elite, but in Kyrgyzstan it can lead to the removal of the former incumbent from the channels of influence on the serving President. In general, institutional reforms in the direction of parliamentarization, combined with the transition to a proportional electoral system, lead to the development of political competition and contribute to the institutionalization of party systems in the states considered.

This article discusses main prospects for the development of the system of combating international terrorism. It is pointed out that international terrorism is now a major problem of national security in many countries. The author noted that in the fight against international terrorism United Nations cooperation with regional institutions and forums such as the Shanghai cooperation organization, the African Union and the Organization of Islamic cooperation should be reviewed to ensure that their activities conform to the norms in human rights and international law. At the same time, the strengthening of the role of public authorities, especially legislative bodies, should be translated into more practical aspects and ensure their effective participation in the development of criminal policy at the national level. That is especially true in the fight against international terrorism. To some extent, that will require changing in the political culture, what will enable many States to recognize especially the role of especially inter-state associations as equal partners in achieving the common goal of ensuring a high level of security. It is concluded that the revival of long-term strategic competition, the rapid spread of new technologies, as well as new concepts of terrorist warfare and a wide range of conflicts require joint efforts by all progressive countries, structured in accordance with the new reality. 

Review on: Etkind A. Roads Not Taken: An Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017. хiv+ 290 p.