The article proposes multidimensional, inter-disciplinary analysis of the essence, basic features, peculiarities and the significance of institutionalism and new institutionalism as the scientific methods and approaches in political sciences. The author researched historical potential, genesis, advantages, achievements and limits of institutionalism. The special attention is paid to the content and particularity of new institutionalism. The author proposes to complement the new institutionalism with values, states, public and social oriented approaches and theories; puts the problem of value post-neoinstitutional analysis.

Rapidly developing new media, with the Internet at their lead, is not only changing the lifestyle of people, but also significantly transforming the relationships between individuals, media and society. For several decades the research of dependency relations has been done on the solid theoretical platform, that is, the theory of obtaining uses and gratification and the theory of media system dependency. Internet dependency is ordinarily conceptualized as a variable dependent in the form of excessive and uncontrolled interaction with the media, particularly when it concerns the duration period of their use. New communication technologies make media dependency relations more variable as the audience gets involved in the information production and distribution processes. The article attempts to cover the research outcomes of dependency on the Internet being based on the above mentioned theoretical grounds.

The article considers the presence of Russian serfdom problem in the intellectual area of the 19-20th centuries. The author analyses the serfdom’s intellectual construction offered by the representatives of the historical juridical school - the only advanced school of thought in Russian historiography. Following them the author objects to interpreting Russian serfdom as a political, social and psychological trauma for Russian civilization. She emphasizes it's inevitable and organic origin as one of the main peculiarities of Russian political reality.

This article discusses the methodology of research and the history of international relations, foreign policies and the example of foreign policies from Great Britain’s involvement within the Middle East. The author attempts to apply different methods of analysis of political phenomena, the views of scientists and experts on foreign policy in different periods of time, with a view of finding common and conflicting interests between Great Britain and the Middle East. The author concludes that one needs the integrated use of all known and the most modern methods of researching the dynamics of political reality that will enable all interested countries to provide a relatively good quality of analysis for the current political situation, predicting events and pursuing an effective policy.

The armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia has led to significant regional changes in the South Caucasus. Among all the neighboring South-Caucasian countries Turkey was the first to react to all the current geopolitical changes in the region. The reaction expressed itself in the form of an initiative to set up the “Stability and Cooperation Platform in the Caucusus”.

The USA and the EU are interested in preserving their geopolitical status in the Middle East. That contributes to increasing the influence of the West upon the key Arab states - energy exporters. Special attention in this case is paid to the military and technical cooperation and to the retraction of loyal Arab regimes into a united trans-regional military-political and economic space.

The article analyses slogans being heard in the streets of Iran in 2009-2010 in the course of mass protests of the “The Green Movement” opposition. Those demonstrations might have been compared with the protests of the Islamic revolution 1978-1979 in terms of the number of participants and intensity of demonstrations. Slogans that could often be heard during protests were the revised versions of those created 30 years before. The main symbols of the protests were opposition supporters who had died in the streets of the Iranian cities due to the actions of the police.

The article is an extract from a well-known book “Geography of Peace” by Nicholas J. Spykman (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1944). The author offers critical analysis of the British geographer Halford Mackinder’s idea of the strategic role of “Heartland”, in other words, the “core” of the Eurasian continent for the establishment of control over the entire Eurasia.

The article is devoted to the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, its meaning to the current international situation of Russia and Russian-Ukrainian relations. The authors highlight a number of problems Russia has faced pursuing its policy towards the Ukraine. They consider different ways of how to get out of the crisis and analyse the essence of the Ukrainian crisis in the context of relations between Russia and the West.

The United States today are internationally recognized as “the pole of political power”. In the inner political space of the country, however, there exist a number of unresolved issues related to migration and the need to integrate millions of Latinos in the system of social relations. Hispanic community gradually forms its specific socio-political challenge, based on its members’ common political interests. Migrants claim not only to obtain their “civil rights”, but also to recognize the importance of their community as a common ethno-cultural group, included in the national political and legal area.

The article considers the process of self-identification and political tolerance of citizens referring to the example of the State Union of Belarus and Russia. The author explores the impact of political factors of self-identification on the dynamic and democratic development of political regimes in post-Soviet area. He also examines the role of multiculturalism theory and practice plays in the CIS states, the way how self-identification factor effects the outcomes of the state policy in a multinational and multiconfessional community, and the way the political self-identification correlates with the dynamics of political stability. By the example of the State of Union of Belarus and Russia development the author shows probable ways for formation of EAEU structures as well as he proposes means for tolerant influence upon citizen’s political self-identification in order to secure the competitive ability and effectivity of state communities in the global world.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the papers of Russian experts on the problems of science and education as instruments of “soft power”. In the analysed materials the author reveals the errors in the interpretation of J. Nye’s original conception and considers groundless assumptions in assessing the potential of the instruments of “soft power”. Particular attention in this paper is drawn to the importance of targeting the audience and the ideological content of foreign students educational programs for the “soft power” of the receiving party.

The article attempts to consider, how Russian emigrants perceived the events in February and October 1917 in the context of political history. The representatives of the Russian abroad generated different approaches to the above events of the revolutionary process in 1917. The discourse formulated by these representatives included such basic parameters as party, doctrine, political institutes, leaders, etc. All these aspects were interpreted differently in the papers and articles, authored by researchers with different political views.

The article analyses Russian historians interpretations of Soviet intelligence operations on the eve of The Great Patriotic War and also the Soviet country’s leadership responses to the intelligence signals on Germany military plans.

The current trend of reducing energy intensity and improving the efficient use of energy resources is the central issue in the State Energy Program of the Russian Federation. The Russian government undertook a number of measures aimed at implementing the course of constructing an energy-efficient society. The author focuses on the specific measures and achievements in this area and considers benefits and challenges of increasing the efficiency of the Russian energy sector.

The article analyses the anti-Bolshevik political reflection during the Civil War in the researches and memoirs of Russian expatriates in the 1920-1930-ies. The author pays special attention to the debatable issues of organizing the work of the legislative and executive power.