The first part of the research is dedicated to the relationship between the US and its European allies in the context of “dual decoupling” and “dual containment”. The author explores the redistribution of costs and burdens in the framework of confrontation with Russia and the growing rivalry with China. It is demonstrated that the post-2020 US – EU reset turned out to be declarative to a significant extent and unfavorable for the EU’s chances of real autonomy in the international arena. The second part of the article is focused on the EU geopolitization caused by the escalation in the competition among major powers and the multiple problems in its own development. This process revolves around the revival of the principle of “hard power” in the EU policy, its attempts to acquire subjectivity in the world affairs with reliance on coercive power, manoeuvring, adaptation to the conditions of polycentricity. Geopolitization of the EU leads to a radical review of the long-established notions including interdependence. The conclusion is drawn that the policies of dual decoupling, dual containment and the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis result in negative dynamics in the cost-benefit analysis of Russia’s rivals.

The article is aimed at studying the main stages in the formation of the scientific concept of finlandization on the example of German studies of Anglo-American historiography, at determining its essential characteristics and the possibilities of using it in the modern research of foreign policy and international relations.

The choice of the German case seems logical. The special role of the German issue in the system of Great Powers relations, its obvious dependence on the microclimate of the Soviet-American relations, the close proximity of West Germany to the borders of the socialist bloc, the painful problem of the German nation division – all this has significantly increased the risks of Soviet influence and theoretically turned the FRG into the most likely candidate for finlandization. Given the key importance of West Germany in the system of Euro-Atlantic security and economy, this prospect was perceived very painfully, the possible reorientation of the FRG was actively discussed in the academic circles in the USA and Great Britain.

The formation of finlandization as a concept for the scientific study of foreign policy and international relations had basically been completed by the beginning of the 1990s. Today, it finds many followers and critics among scientists from different countries, which indicates its modern relevance.

The topic of Zionist movement history in Russia is still controversial and has not been sufficiently studied. In this regard, the work is intended to fill in the gaps, clarify a number of issues on the topic and expand its historiography. In preparing the publication, historical-genetic and historical-systemic methods of research were applied. The novelty of the issue lies in the fact that each publication provides a new opportunity for an objective research of the issue, since for many years the term “Zionism” had negative connotations in our country and was equated with racism, and the works containing a different view started appearing relatively recently with the opening of archives. Unlike many parties in Soviet Russia, which were recognized as counter-revolutionary, the Zionist organizations attracted significant numbers of young people including teenagers, and that became a unique feature of the movement, whose goal was to raise a healthy generation capable of building a new state. The study of those aspects will make it possible to draw parallels between various anti-Soviet parties and organizations in Russia, to isolate the main milestones in the development of the Zionist youth movement, to come to the conclusion that one of the peculiarities of youth movements was that some part of them was created by the youth and did not depend on the older generation parties, while others, in order to expand influence, were formed on the basis of those parties that had already existed. The article was prepared on the basis of Russian and foreign archival documents, whose introduction into scientific circulation will replenish the source base on the Zionist movement history in Soviet Russia.

The reconfiguration of the international arena that is taking place at the moment cannot be characterized other than as a time of crises and sudden changes. It seems quite obvious that in the conditions of international tension, any division of states into “friendly” and “unfriendly”, accompanied by the mutual imposition of sanctions, by the growing desire of countries to realize their national interests, including the military methods, the most vulnerable points of intersection of geopolitical interests are under threat. For Russia, one of them is the Arctic, a region of high resource, industrial and infrastructural potential. Meanwhile, despite the importance of the Arctic for the state and the long history of exploration of the territory, the borders of the Russian Arctic space have not been clearly defined yet, which makes it possible to increase political pressure from unfriendly states and international organizations. Having ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997, the Russian Federation undertook obligations to act in accordance with the established procedure in case of territorial claims to water and underwater spaces. Consequently, asserting its rights to the Lomonosov Ridge and other objects that are the extensions of the continental shelf, in 2001 the Russian Federation filed an application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Currently, the procedure is still incomplete, although Russia in February 2023 received the recommendations of the Commission, which has recognized a significant part of the state’s territorial claims. However, the contemporary conditions are such that any further efforts to delimit the spaces with the Arctic states, which have overlapping interests with Russia, are fraught with the aggravation of the situation in the international arena and unconstructive co-operation in general.

The term “neo-Ottomanism” was actively used when the Justice and Development Party, headed by R.T. Erdogan, came to power in Turkey. The conceptual ideas of former Prime Minister A. Davutoglu, who is the ideologist of modern neo-Ottomanism, are regarded as a strategy for expanding the Turkish factor in the “post-Ottoman states”. It shows the connection of Ankara’s modern foreign policy with the rich historical heritage of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, Turkey conducts a reversal of the country’s former importance in the international arena, taking into account modern geopolitical realities. The article focuses on the fact that neo-Ottomanism is not an aggressive policy through the annexation of the countries that were previously part of the Ottoman Empire. From the position of the Republic of Turkey, neo-Ottomanism is a foreign policy strategy aimed at protecting its national interests through a combination of soft and hard power, cultural exports, support for the integration of the Turkic peoples and, first of all, compliance with the concept of “zero problems with neighbors”. Therefore, president R.T. Erdogan focuses on the need to protect the country’s national interests, proposing the role of a mediator in the settlement of international conflicts, concentrates on the military solution to the problem of Kurdish separatism, promotion of a positive image of the Ottoman Empire, participation in integration organizations with Turkic-speaking countries.

The article is devoted to the role of the national factor, specifically the Pashtun nationality, in the process of shaping the policy of the “Taliban”. Since there are a lot of ethnic groups living on the territory of Afghanistan, it is worth studying how various political forces manage their agenda and how fully each ethnic group is represented in the structure of government. The “Taliban” movement has been in power for two terms, one of which is still going on. Thus, it is possible to trace back the evolution of the Pashtun factor and determine the influence of nationalism on the political discourse of the extremely conservative society. There are a lot of research papers that are devoted to the religious component in the ideology of the movement, and that can be explained by the prevailing role of Islam on the Afghan territory. However, under the rule of the National Democratic Party of Afghanistan (NDPA), an effort was made to secularize the Afghan society. In hindsight, it can be seen that such approach has led to social rejection due to many reasons. The efforts of neglecting or minimizing the role of religious institutions in the traditional Muslim society are perceived as a challenge and cause discontent among citizens. The affiliation with the whole Umma prevails over national identity. As for Afghanistan, the country is split into the zones of influence, and they can be governed by other forces, different from the official “Taliban” government in Kabul. The Pashtun community amounts to approximately 50% of the whole Afghan population which makes it important to take into account their role in the political process.

The resonant murder of the commander of the Al-Quds service of Iran, Qasem Suleimani, at the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020, was an event that put the entire global security system to the test. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the United States made a decision and carried out the liquidation of a person holding an official position in the power hierarchy of another state. A number of articles in both domestic and foreign scientific doctrine were devoted to that event. However, according to the author, the issues related to the coverage of the instrument of targeted killings in the US security system and the decision-making process concerning their implementation were bypassed. World media reports give a picture of a spontaneous decision on the murder of K. Suleimani, which was made by D. Trump on the spur of a moment. Nevertheless, the American practice of targeted killing programs indicates the presence in the US of the power tools of a complex decision-making process in that area, which is based on a system for collecting and analyzing intelligence data and assessing existing threats. Thus, the objectives of this study are to analyze the phenomenon of targeted killings in the US power tools, to consider the decision-making mechanism in that area and to study the role of UAVs in targeted killing operations.

Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, analysts have turned to examine its impact on European politics at the turning point of the Cold War. As a large European state, Italy found itself at the epicenter of the Cold War – this conflict of interests reached planetary proportions and left a devastating mark on Italy. Even so, the scientific literature has not sufficiently reflected such global issues as the overcoming by the Italian Communist Party of the “Italian anomaly” and the “imperfect bipartisanship” which turned out to be a direct result of the Cold War.

The starting point of this research is to analyze the processes of overcoming the isolation of the PCI and its path to power in the context of the Caribbean Crisis influence on the transformations of the Italian political system. The author takes a closer look at the Center-Left experiment as the impact of the Cuban Crisis and the main result of the rethinking by the élites of the Center, including the communists, of the new formats of their interaction with the left political spectrum in order to overcome the situation assessed by analysts as a “political paralysis”. Carrying out research on the PCI drifting towards the so-called “room with buttons”, the author comes to the conclusion that in the conditions of the Cold War and the dictatorship of the Communist Party of the USSR in relation to the international communist movement, that goal could never have succeeded. Besides, the author draws a conclusion about a consistent contribution of the Center-Left to the reinforcement of liberal democracy and to the gradual overcoming of the Cold War binary logic in Italy and also in Europe.

Considerable attention is paid to the transformation of Italian communists. The Caribbean Crisis and the Center-Left experiment influenced greatly the communist’s transit to Eurocommunism as a revised design of social democracy. Finally, Vatican’s role in overcoming the Missile Crisis as well as its transition to positive neutrality at Vatican II at the very peak of the world conflict had a huge impact on the reduction of the ideological conflict severity in Catholic Italy.

The article examines the ethos and motivation of the scientists of the Manhattan Project within the framework of their development of nuclear weapons. The empirical information is compared to R.K. Merton’s concept of scientific ethos, as well as L.M. Dmitrieva’s concept of truth-seeking and responsibility of scientists. The recollections of the leading scientific personnel of the Manhattan Project make up the main source of the research. The article consists of three parts. The first part examines the motivation of the scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project. The second part analyzes the relevance of the actions of the Manhattan Project scientists to R.K. Merton’s concept of the ethos of science. The last part of the article specifies the fundamental bases of scientific ethos with the help of L.M. Dmitrieva’s concept and compares the actions of the scientists of the Manhattan Project with the specified essentials. The research concludes with an outline of the main set of moral and ethical norms in scientific activity in the course of the Manhattan Project. The conclusions of the research are particularly relevant in the context of increasing international tensions and deep involvement of the scientific community in the process of improvement of both conventional and mass destruction weapons.

The article examines the main guidelines of Vatican’s public diplomacy and their transformation. The Vatican’s current public diplomacy dates back to the mid-1970s and is associated with the Second Vatican Council. Since that event, the Roman Catholic Church has significantly expanded its activity on the international stage and also recognized the need to use the media and other tools to increase its influence. Faced with the changes in social norms and the national composition of the target audience, the Vatican was forced to abandon categorical and conservative rhetoric in favor of something more loyal to its traditional “areas of responsibility”: family values, birth control, women’s rights. At the same time, over the past fifty years, the content of the messages broadcast by the Vatican has also changed. The focus of the Roman Catholic Church has gradually shifted from the traditional family values to the environmental agenda and from the problems of the elites to the problems of the “poor”. The article discusses the consistency in changing the strategic priorities of Vatican’s public diplomacy and its desire to take an active part in addressing the global challenges through adaptation to social reality.