Based on the  previously unknown documents  from the  Russian state and departmental archives, and also on scientific literature, the activities of the Soviet diplomats and intelligence officers to intensify the military-diplomatic and economic relations between the USSR and Afghanistan in 1953–1963 are analyzed. It is shown how, in the context of the Cold War and the confrontation between the USSR KGB and the U.S. CIA, the Soviet intelligence in Afghanistan managed to obtain reliable information about the foreign and domestic policy of the local government and to contribute to the implementation of Moscow’s foreign policy course. It is documented why the Soviet-Afghan relations began to rapidly improve from the second half of 1955. The research shows the participation of the Soviet military specialists in the reorganization of the Afghan army and in its rearmament, the delivering process of modern military equipment (tanks, aircrafts).In addition, the Soviet Union at that time provided a large-scale economic assistance to Afghanistan: dozens of important national economic facilities were built (hydroelectric power stations, irrigation complexes,  airfields,  roads,  power  lines, car repair  plants  and  workshops). It  is concluded that during that period, informal leadership in the political and economic spheres for influence in Afghanistan belonged to Moscow.

The aim of the study is to determine the specifics of criticism of a politician and the institution of the presidency in popular culture using the example   of   the   critique  of   Ronald  Reagan  in   the   comics   during   his  tenure.  The  object of the analysis is the representation of the US President in the issues of the industry leaders of print superhero comics; the subject is the mechanisms of criticism of the institution of the presidency. The research methodology is based on a semiotic and iconological analysis of the visual material; a descriptive method is used to introduce the historical context. The image structures are analyzed using the film studies tools (analysis of dramaturgy, camera angles, film   editing).   The superherocomic   book  from  the   1980s  consistently  deconstructs the image of the President, and particularly, the media component of that image. The article for the first time identifies the cinematic clichés that the   comic   book  authors  use  in the construction   of   a  critical  narrative   about Reagan, analyzes the ways of implementing the motive of the puppet nature of the institution of the presidency and studies the representation modes of the policy towards the USSR. The author concludes that by the end of the 1980s, a steady  set of  techniques  and  a repertoire of  plots for the  critical assessment  of  the US President had been formed in the superheroics.

The article examines the phenomenon of “imagological restructuring”. The main sources were journalistic and audiovisual materials – books, brochures, periodicals and other popular science publications, as well as films. The novelty of the research lies in the qualitative rethinking and conceptualization of this source base through the imagological approach, the results of the latest research in the field of symbolic politics and the politics of memory. It is shown that the systemic factors of that process were: the internal political course of the USSR initiated by M.S. Gorbachev and being moved towards the loosening of the political control over culture and de-ideologization; negotiation process at the international level; transition to the “cool world”. The author has set the frames of a conditional periodization. At the first stage (1985–1987/88), journalism and cinematography retained the inertia of the “old” discourse; the media “Cold War” and the exposure of the “American imperialism” continued. At the second stage (1987/88–1991), there was a progressive change in the optics of perceptions and representations: the transformation of the image of the United States from an enemy to a partner, including through the transfer of the image of an ally from the countries of Eastern Europe to the United States – rehumanization and rehabilitation of the “former ours”/“strangers”. Conclusions are drawn that perestroika contributed to the improvement of the Soviet-American relations, the constructive renewal of a collective memory, the neutralization of stereotypes, and the end of the “Cold War”. Moreover, all that became a political and imagological defeat of the USSR, expressed in the delegitimation of socialism and the Soviet national-state identity.

Since the late 1980s, Austria, using and consistently widening its political-diplomatic and military-political set of instruments, has actively started to be involved in determining the further contours of Yugoslavia’s evoution. Slovenia and Croatia turned out to be the first polygon for this policy, within the framework of which the key parameters of the Alpine Republic’s approach to the further formation of the post-Yugoslavia space were established.

The article analyses the general approach of official Vienna to the discussed issue in the period when Slovenia and Croatia separated from the SFRY. The author consistently studies the nature and dynamics of the bilateral contacts between Austria and both Republics. Special attention is paid to the determination of the main incentive motives in support of official Ljubljana and Zagreb; the paper also  identifies  the  similar  features  and  the  specifics  of  such policy, carries out research on the mechanisms used, and the conclusion is made concerning the model of interaction.

This article describes the interaction between Russia and Canada on the development of the Arctic space. The role of the Arctic in the conditions of an actively changing climate is very important both for the Arctic states that have direct borders with the region and for the whole world in general. The author analyzes the actions of the two countries in the period from the 1990s to  the early 2000s.  Gorbachev’s reforms,  along with  the  active  position of  the Canadian government, made it possible to start cooperation on humanitarian issues  even before  the collapse of  the  USSR.  The  1990s were marked by the active formation of a number of legal agreements on cooperation between Russia and Canada, as well as other Arctic states. In 1996, the Arctic Council was founded, an organization designed to ensure the sustainable development of the region. The progressive improvement of the relations between the two largest Nordic countries began to stagnate after 2006, with the coming to power of the Conservative Party led by S.  Harper. The purpose of this article is to analyze the intergovernmental process between the Russian Federation and Canada aimed  at  the  development of  the  Arctic region.  The  novelty of  this  work lies  in the fact that, despite the presence in the domestic historiography of the studies on the topic, the article is the first attempt of a generalized scientific research of the Canadian-Russian cooperation in the development of the Arctic.

The relations between China and the EU are one of the defining tracks  for the further  development of  the international  order. In  the last  few years, they are characterized by an increasing tension, since there are confrontational trends in the political interaction, along with the robust trade and economic development. In addition, the third parties have a decisive influence on the China-EU relations. The article attempts to determine the current state of the Sino-European relations,  as  well  as  to  consequently  make a forecast of  their further development. The methods of the retrospective and comparative analysis are used to systematically compare and evaluate the Sino-European relations in their development, and also to identify the patterns characterizing them. A   discourse analysis of the statements of the European and Chinese political figures is used as an auxiliary mechanism. The author highlights such tendencies as the degradation of the relations, primarily in the political sphere, the strengthening of economic interdependence, the development of the bilateral relations with the EU member states, rather than with the supranational bodies of the integration association. In addition, it is suggested that the influence of the various structural factors leads to a significant increase in the rivalry between China and the European Union. The author concludes that the Sino-European relations will be determined to a greater extent by their relationship with the third parties, and the current trends will continue to develop, increasing the degradation of the political interaction between Beijing and Brussels.

The shale revolution of the early 21^st century has radically changed the energy image of the United States, turning the country into one of the largest exporters of hydrocarbons. Such significant transformations could not but affect how Washington positions itself in the global energy market and how it defines its national interests in this sphere. The article is dedicated to the juxtaposition between the approaches of the last three administrations to this issue.

Despite the fact that a significant body of domestic and foreign research focuses on the persistent desire of each new political leadership to maximally distance itself from its predecessors, a consistent analysis of the strategic documents on the development of the U.S. fuel and energy complex, as well as on the specifics of building relations with other actors of the international energy system, allows  us  to  make a conclusion  that  Washington’s policy  is  based on the constant imperative of achieving resource self-sufficiency and gaining a dominant position in  the  global  market. Such a circumstance indicates  the evolutionary nature of the changes in the 2012–2023 US energy doctrine, and it occurred in full compliance with the global leadership mentality which is typical for the country.

The  article  analyzes  the  evolution of  Georgia’s role  in  the  US foreign policy strategy in 2012–2022. The article is aimed at understanding the degree of importance of Georgia in the U.S. foreign policy, identifying the areas of cooperation and conflict, and establishing the nature of the relations between Georgia and the United States. The methodology of the study is based on a systematic  approach, thanks  to  which it  was possible to  determine the most significant factors influencing the bilateral relations. The scientific novelty of the research consists in conducting a comprehensive analysis of the logic and dynamics of the 2012–2022 Georgian-American relations, the study of the anti-Western rhetoric of the modern Georgian government, as well as in attracting the relevant groups of sources that have not been used previously in the domestic studies on the Georgian-American relations (the U.S. reports on the state of democracy in Georgia, a complete list of the legislative materials of  the  U.S.  Congress  for Georgia, the  data on the  Georgia’s foreign trade from2014 to  2022, the  U.S.  officials’ statements  criticizing the “Georgian Dream”, etc.).The author comes to the conclusion that the Biden administration, unlike the previous administrations, faced an additional problem in determining the significance of Georgia: since the end of Bush’s presidential term, the American side had not had a clear strategic regional policy to which Tbilisi could have related. Thus, the  under taken  research  is relevant  for the  formation of  Russia’s foreign policy strategy in the context of the toughened geopolitical competition in the South Caucasus in order to effectively protect its own national security.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the countercultural movements in the United States and Great Britain in the second half of the 1950s, when the nonconformist movements were being developed within their national borders. Applying the comparative method to compare the American “beat generation” and the British “angry young men” and using the discourse analysis to  identify  the  repertoires  of  the  meanings embedded in  their works –the  poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg and  the  play  “Look  Back in  Anger” by John Osborne  – the author determines the nonconformist characteristics inherent both to each separate literary movement and to the entire generation of the “long sixties”. The detection of common characteristic features made it possible for the author to test the hypothesis about the similarities between the two  movements, and  those similarities  allowed for the  movements’ mutual cultural influence in the 1960s.

The paper examines the information deposited in the sources and connected with  the  youth  worldview of  Count  Roman Sheptytsky, later  the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey(1865–1944). An attemp thas been made to analyze the data on this topic, going right back to the childhood of the future hierarch.  The  statements  contained in  the  recollections  of  Roman’s mother, Zofia Szeptycka,  are compared with  the  facts evidenced by the  Sheptytskys’family correspondence of the period under review. In addition to the direct statements of the young count and his mother relating to his worldview, attention is paid to the information that indirectly proves this, in particular, the data  on Roman’s participation  in  various student associations. When describing  the  atmosphere  of  Breslau University of  which Sheptytsky  was a student, the topic of the nature of the “alien” structure is touched upon. In this regard, the foundations of the confrontation between the Catholics and the Socialists in the Grand Duchy of Poznań are outlined. In particular, a comparison was made between the Catholic and the Socialist doctrines of the society. The article  explicates the  nature  of  Sheptytsky’s participation  in  the  activities  of  the Philaret brother hood at Jagiellonian University. The significance of the public change in 1885 of the national self-identification of the future metropolitan is revealed.  The  conclusion  is  made about the  Sheptytsky’s worldview priorities in the described period.

Modern scientific research shows that religion increasingly deter -mines the way of life of the societies where traditional confessions have become widespread. The social transformations in the developing and developed states caused by economic modernization and migration processes, as well as the ineffectiveness of the governance models used by the political elites are mentioned as reasons. The world religions adapt to the modern situation and try to influence the socio-political processes. This is also characteristic of the Vatican, the city-state that administers the Roman Catholic Church. An important goal of the Vatican policy over the past decade is to raise the profile of the Catholic Church beyond its traditional sphere of influence. Through the analysis of the strategic narrative of Pope Francis   I, the article considers the public diplomacy of the Vatican as a tool to implement its foreign policy. The purpose of the research  is  to  determine the uniqueness  of  the strategic  narrative  of  the Vatican’s public diplomacy during the early pontificate of Francis I, aimed at transforming the image of the Roman Catholic Church and strengthening its relations with the faithful abroad. Emphasizing the pontiff’s dual  role  as  head of  a sovereign state and head of the Roman Catholic Church, the study uses the frame analysis to  identify  the key ideas articulated  in  the pontiff’s rhetoric.  The results  of  the analysis show that Pope FrancisI’s speeches to the public in the early years of his pontificate were based on the ideas of collective responsibility, universal values, and a call to action. An integrated reflection on these three frameworks suggests that the RCC’s public diplomacy efforts go far beyond the Catholic audiences.