Based upon the wide range of sources, including Russian and British archival documents, published diplomatic correspondence, diaries penned by some eye-witnesses and newspaper commentaries, the article dwells upon the attempts by the Comintern to bring to life the ideas of “world revolution” in the Middle East states – such as Persia and Afghanistan, as well as in the Chinese possessions – Sinkiang and Tibet, which in the period under review – the second half of the 1920s, gained a quasi-independent status. The author meticulously examines various forms and methods of exporting revolutionary practices to the British Empire Asian outskirts, where Indian subcontinent occupied a key position. As a result of the study, it was established that by the beginning of the 1930s, the concept of the “world revolution” as one of the directions of Soviet foreign policy underwent a transformation from reality into a myth, which began to perform mainly propaganda functions. Besides that, the author came to conclusion that the transformation had a serious impact on the development of Soviet-Britain relations during the second conservative government of S. Baldwin, being zigzag in nature – from the state of mutual confrontation in 1925–1926, through the rupture of 1927, to the restoration after the return to power of the Labour Party in 1929.

This article explores the reasons why the United Kingdom joined the process of the European integration in 1973 and factors of Euroscepticism that led to Brexit in 2016. The article shows that the main reason to join the process of the European integration was the desire to maximize economic gains for the country. However, very soon the question of deepening of the European integration became the ‘hostage’ of intraparty fights in the two main British parties. Irrespective of the party affiliation, the British Prime Ministers preferred to keep control over their party and expand their electoral base by appealing to Eurosceptics rather than deepening political integration with mainland Europe. In other words, the foreign policy and especially relations with Europe depended very much on internal politics and party mood. Even the decision to hold a referendum on leaving European Union has been the outcome of intraparty struggle within the Conservative Party.

The article deals with policy aimed to strengthen the country’s role in South America of the Brazilian governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro in the first two decades of the 21^st century. The Brazil’s desire to become a part of the global community based on leadership in South America was articulated at the beginning of the 20^th century by then Minister of Foreign Affairs Baron de Rio-Branco. Since then it has become a key issue of Brazilian foreign policy. It was shown in the article that Lula’s strategy for playing a more prominent role in regional affairs was especially successful in the areas of subregional integration and creation of new formats of multilateral cooperation. In context of significant changes of the regional context because of electoral results and impact of external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic the current Brazilian government had to review of its approach to the state positioning within the region. This change has already affected Brazil’s relations with other South American countries and effectiveness of its regional leadership.

Uzbekistan, having a serious economic and demographic potential in the Central Asian region, does not only actively participate, but it also initiates the processes of regionalization. The article consists of three sections. The first part reflects the state policy of the republic in the field of international cooperation and the factors influencing the choice of a regional vector. The main trends in the bilateral political and economic cooperation with the neighboring states are outlined in the second part of the article. The third section highlights the features of the regional cooperation with the countries of the zone in the format of interstate associations and organizations. The author discusses the main aspects that determine the need for regional cooperation to strengthen the interaction, develop the relevant initiatives and the new approaches for a timely response to the emerging problems, and mitigate their consequences. The article emphasizes the importance of conducting a close trade, economic and investment policy, building up direct contacts of business entities, developing the transport and transit potential of the region and the effective joint management of natural resources. The conclusion is made about the potential positive effects of Uzbekistan’s active participation in the regional processes in the economic sphere and the factors of Uzbekistan’s successful integration with the current EAEU member states.

This article discusses the Arctic agenda of the liberal and conservative cabinets of J. Chretien and S. Harper. Attention is also paid to the short period of P. Martin’s premiership. The author consistently considers the position of liberals based on the desire for international cooperation and the solution of common problems of the region. The head of the liberal Party, J. Chretien, sought cooperation with all the Arctic states; in particular, he repeatedly visited Russia on official visits. Prime Minister of the Conservative party S. Harper did not visit the Russian Federation, but made traditional visits to the Arctic, where he made policy statements. In contrast to the position of the liberals, the conservatives relied on the buildup of military power, thus seeking to strengthen their positions in the Arctic and on the world stage. In the future, events both inside and outside the country have led to the fact that the conservative position regarding the Arctic region has undergone some changes. On the eve of the 2011 parliamentary elections, the Conservatives retreated from the one-sided position of expanding military forces and began to pay attention to other problems in the region, among other things. The purpose of this article is to compare the political actions of the Conservative and Liberal parties of Canada in the Arctic. Despite the fact that there are separate studies of the political actions of both representatives of liberals and conservatives, the novelty of this article lies in comparing these different approaches over a certain period of time.

State support for social NGO’s is a direction of the social policy, which has become relevant in the last decade. In the 1990’s, federal and regional authorities did not implement any special policy regarding the «third sector». Since the beginning of the 2000s, the federal center (followed by the regional authorities) began to take active steps to build a certain systemic policy towards NGOs.

According to Russian legislation, NGO have the right to receive property support from the state (rent of premises at a preferential rate, gratuitous provision of premises or operational management). However, often NGO are faced with the inaccessibility of information about such premises and the opacity of procedures for allocating such premises. Based on an analysis of open sources (websites of regional and municipal authorities) and a survey of SONKO employees in the regions of Russia in 2017, the author identified the reasons why SONKO cannot receive premises free of charge or at a reduced cost. Among such reasons are the small numbers of available premises, the interest of local authorities in making a profit from commercial rental of premises, poor condition of premises, ignorance of municipal officials about the possibilities of supporting SONKO. Analysis of state statistics data for 2020 shows that this problem is still relevant today.