The article analyzes the current state of historical scholarship and focuses on the transformation of research approaches in Russian and international historiography and the expanding range of methodologies used in research. It focuses on the importance of an integrated approach to modern historical research, particularly in the area of international relations. An integrated approach allows for a more comprehensive examination of the issues of foreign and domestic state policy, macro- and micro-history, and the formation of collective identities.

This article is devoted to the methodological aspects of researching geopolitical transformations in Eastern Europe. It examines the integration of classical and critical geopolitics with the tools of discourse analysis and civilizational theory. This integrated approach allows for the study of the region as a multidimensional space where strategic interests intertwine with civilizational identity and value-based contradictions. Particular attention is paid to the concept of the “Third Traditionalism” as a potential foundation for a mass political program. Using the monograph by Alexandr Bovdunov, “Great Eastern Europe”, as a case study, the article analyzes the potential of this comprehensive methodological     framework for understanding the dynamics of interaction between Russia as a civilization-state and the countries of Eastern Europe in the context of an emerging multipolar world.

The paper, based on the analysis of the “Physical Culture and Sport” magazine (1946–1953), examines the sport discourse as a resource of forming Soviet identity in the Early Cold War period. The author points out that the representations of sports served as a part of the “Sovietness”, contributing to the production of the images of the Soviet Motherland and the Soviet people, to the formation of the views on the norms and values of the Soviet way of life, and to the strengthening of national pride. The magazine accentuated in the sport ethics the values of collectivism, devotion to the cause of  Communism,  love  to  the  Motherland,  comradeship,  equality  of  men  and  women. The sport discourse also employed the representations of the U.S.A. and the creation of the negative perception of the United States functioned as a necessary element of the policy of Soviet identity. The features of the Soviet image of the “enemy number one” manifested themselves in the characteristics of  the  U.S.  sport:  priority  of  the  interests  of  big  business;  social  inequality  in  access to sports; racial discrimination; exploitation of professional athletes by businesses; individualism; dishonesty; the cult of bestial cruelty; militarization; exploiting sports for the justification of war and for propaganda of American exceptionalism all over the world. The top-level sports was constructed as the arena of confrontation between the two worlds.

The article examines the role of Soviet television in the late 1970s and early 1980s in constructing the image of the United States through the prism of the nuclear threat. The article seeks to identify the recurring mechanisms of television discourse through which historical memory was reinterpreted and the new symbols of the nuclear threat were constructed in the context of a renewed confrontation at the final stage of the Cold War. The main sources of the study are the programs Mezhdunarodnaya Panorama (International Panorama), Vremya (Time), Novosti (News), and Prozhektor perestroiki (Spotlight on Perestroika), where the memory of Hiroshima was intertwined with the contemporary issues of international politics and became part of a stable symbolic repertoire. The analysis focuses on the techniques by which television expanded the circle of “victims” of nuclear escalation – from the Japanese affected by the atomic bombing to the Europeans and Americans participating in the protests against the nuclear arms race – thereby shaping the image of powerlessness and the illusory character of “bourgeois democracy”.

The article is devoted to the study of the Common Market of South American Countries (MERCOSUR). With the help of the subject-institutional, geopolitical, historical-philosophical approaches, synthesized with the methods of the predictive, strategic, and situational analysis, the author verified the integration impulses of MERCOSUR, as well as predicted the direction of development of that intergovernmental organization. By means of a case study method and the principle of unity of the logical and the historical, the author identified the political integration impulses (footholds) and outlined the strategic development prospects (points of growth) of MERCOSUR, which contributed to the strengthening of the bloc as a self-sufficient geopolitical unit. In particular, the author proves that the integration impulses of the MERCOSUR project are the processes of “Bipolarization”, “Pacifization”, “Interregionalization”, “Democratization” and “Autonomization”. At the same time, the author predicts that the direction of the development of this organization will be based on the concepts of “Nearshoring” and “Friendshoring”, contributing to the structuring of new logistics routes and the optimization of the existing supply chains, which will be adjusted for the territorial proximity and the political loyalty of the independent MERCOSUR member countries.

This article examines the contemporary Afghan-Iranian relations in the context of the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan. It analyzes the evolution of Tehran’s position, which, throughout the twenty-year American presence, consistently condemned the US actions as the primary cause of regional destabilization. The current relations are characterized as strictly pragmatic, focusing on the security issues, economic cooperation, and the settlement of the trans-boundary water disputes. Economic cooperation with Iran holds a significant value for the current Afghan authorities in the context of the diversification of external economic ties and the reduction of the dependence on other regional actors. Faced with a deficit of domestic legitimacy, the Taliban are interested in obtaining an official diplomatic recognition from Tehran. The formation of Iran’s position towards the new Afghan authorities is driven by a complex set of factors, including the perception of the Taliban as an antiWestern force, the need to counter the cross-border security threats, as well as reckoning Iran’s internal political and socio-economic dynamics. Those relations are complex and multifaceted, combining the elements of forced partnership and latent confrontation, particularly on the issues concerning the rights of the Shia minority in Afghanistan and the use of the trans-boundary water resources. The article explores the dynamics of those relations and analyzes the key factors driving their development. The author concludes that, despite the available evidence of the close ties between Tehran and the Taliban leadership, the interaction between the two sides remains limited.

The Space Policy doctrine is one of the main documents determining the direction of space policy in the United States. The article examines and compares the space policy doctrines adopted by the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. For a complete picture, the article also analyses the key legislative acts related to the development of the US space industry under the two administrations. A comparative analysis of the presented documents serves as a methodological basis; it allows the author to highlight the main changes introduced by the Trump administration. Among them, the key ones are the strengthening of the role of the private sector, the creation of the National Space Council and the revision of the asteroid exploration program with its reorientation to the Moon. At the same time, based on the premise that the US space policy as a system is characterized not only by the influence of individuals, but also by relative stability due to the large number of the actors involved, it is concluded that there was no fundamentally new nature of the Trump administration’s space policy, but rather certain innovations were introduced, with the general continuity being kept. None of those key innovations bring real changes to the space policy system formed in the United States.

Amid a marked escalation of the European security crisis, the evolution and doctrinal framework of the collective West’s approach to security in the Baltic Sea deserves close scrutiny. This article examines the transformation of the Federal Republic of Germany’s cooperation with Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway in the Baltic maritime theater. The inquiry is deliberately confined to the German-Scandinavian track. It is delineated not by the formal geography of the “Scandinavian Peninsula”, but by a constellation of institutional, politico-military, and economic linkages that confer on these Northern European states the status of Germany’s principal partners in the land, maritime, and air projections of security along the Northern flank. Finland is included on the basis of its informal designation as a “Nordic country”, its participation in core Northern European formats, and its direct access to the Baltic Sea. Throughout the paper, the term “Scandinavian” is employed as an operational category encompassing the Nordic states critically engaged in the security of the Baltic-North Sea space. This framing illuminates the specific mechanisms of interaction with Germany: the maritime component; energy and infrastructure connectivity; cooperation in high-technology segments of the defense industrial base and the joint armaments programs. Using comparative and event-based methods, the study addresses the historical premises of the German-Scandinavian interaction from 1945 to the “turning point” of 2022; the implications of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO for the Alliance’s force distribution; the evolution of the “NORDEFCO – Germany” formats, the Joint Expeditionary Force, and the EU’s Baltic Sea initiatives; naval, infrastructure, and energy integration; and prospective scenarios. A core contribution of the study is an assessment of a military-political interaction between Germany and the states under review through the lens of military-political and military-technical cooperation. The analysis evaluates the challenges confronting Germany and the Baltic littoral amid the accelerating erosion of Europe’s security architecture. The principal research tasks are to trace the development of the Federal Republic’s military-political approaches to the relations with the Scandinavian states; to analyze the current level and maturity of Berlin’s policies and those of the states in question; and to assess the extent to which the German-Scandinavian cooperation shapes Europe’s security in the context of escalation of the military-political crisis in the Baltic region.

The article examines the practices of the remote e-voting in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Northwestern Russia during the 2024 Presidential elections in the Russian Federation: in the Republic of Karelia, the Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Murmansk Oblast, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The analysis focuses on the structural determinants of the voting behavior based on the geopolitical position, demographic characteristics, and the level of digital maturity of the studied Russia’s regions. The article highlights Russia’s intention to keep the status of the Arctic as the region of peace and harmony, stable and mutually beneficial partnerships during the ongoing era, of the challenges and threats to national security posed by the unfriendly states. This fact underscores the increased citizens’ attention to the Presidential elections.

The methodological frames are based on the digital society theory in order to indicate the ability of digital technologies to transform the social space into the network structures and corresponding communication channels, to reshape social connections, and form new values and norms in public opinion.

The first-order Presidential elections are interpreted through the concept of social cleavage structures, the conditions affecting the voter turnout and the configuration of voter preferences. A comparative analysis and calculation of the linear correlation dependencies based on the data from the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, as well as the survey of the rating and index ranking of the studied units, enabled a multifactorial analysis of the remote e-voting practices in Russia’s Arctic and subarctic regions during the 2024 Presidential elections.

In conclusion, the authors argue that the implementation of a remote evoting not only increases electoral activity but also modifies the mechanisms of political legitimacy formation, while providing the opportunities to assess the prospects for further digitalization of the electoral process.

The article discusses the cooperation in enhancing financial literacy in the CIS. The authors analyze the increase of financial literacy in the general context of cooperation in the CIS. Over the past 30 years, the level of cooperation between the CIS countries has gradually decreased – starting with the idea of economic union, then turning to the common economic space, and finally ending with the free trade zone. The current CIS documents no longer mention the movement to common economic space. Nevertheless, there are still elements of the common economic space in its modern understanding. In particular, it is true for the development of human capital. Cooperation in improving financial literacy, which is still relevant in the CIS, contributes to the development of human capital or, more broadly, to the development of a common economic culture in the CIS. The results can be useful for specialists in the field of cooperation between the CIS countries, for scientists and practitioners involved in improving financial literacy. The improvement of financial literacy in the CIS contributes to the development of human capital, which is a significant element of common economic space in accordance with modern understanding. Developing individual elements of the common economic space, it may be possible to restore the movement towards a common economic space of the CIS.

The article attempts to examine the evolution of political marketing, its theoretical and methodological foundations and the differences from commercial marketing strategies. The author describes the dual role of the marketing technologies in politics: as an instrument of electoral mobilization and as a mechanism for structuring the political space. Special attention is paid to the interaction of the state and other actors in a competitive political environment, as well as to the interrelationships between political marketing and propaganda technologies. It is noted that modern political processes are characterized by high dynamism, uncertainty and fragmentation, which makes political marketing one of the key tools for managing public opinion and competition between political actors. However, classical approaches to its study are losing relevance in the context of digitalization, the transformation of the political market and the increasing complexity of political communication mechanisms. Moreover, the article describes the concept of a political market where supply generates demand, and marketing technologies are used in both open and latent power strategies. The study confirms the need to rethink political marketing as a hybrid mechanism of influence combining traditional and manipulative tools for managing political reality. The conclusions of the article emphasize the importance of adaptive marketing strategies in the context of the instability of the political landscape and the growing technological influence on political processes.

The article utilizes the Stephen Walt’s idea that the ideological projects aimed at uniting states into political blocs actually possess built-in divisive potential that can be activated by the power ambitions of the national elites. The authors support this hypothesis by referring to the facts related to the early attempts to unite Europe on the basis of the Christian monarchic solidarity in the first half of the 19^th century (the Holy Alliance of the Russian Emperor Alexander I), as well as to the efforts by Egypt and Syria to create the United Arab Republic (UAR) and to the challenges that the Soviet leadership faced while trying to establish the system of the socialist states that would be united on the common ideological principles in the second half of the 20th century. The authors also resort to Mark Haas’s theory that in an ideologically multi-polar international system, an “under-balancing” (ineffective balancing) may arise, where individual states are not able to effectively determine who is their most sworn enemy and largely prefer the “buck-passing” strategy instead of establishing alliances or increasing military expenditures. However, some states may prefer to form a coalition against another state if it simultaneously poses the greatest ideological and military threat to them. The authors contribute to this theoretical construct by shedding some additional light on the way the states actually identify one or another ideological project as the most acute threat. Building the argument on the notion that each ruling elite deems the political survival as the paramount goal, they argue that some ideology will be considered as a serious threat if it directly challenges the rulers’ legitimation narrative or (less likely) calls for a revision of the approach to the redistribution of public goods. However, apart from being radical, such an ideology must also have the potential to become widespread and be supported by the population. In order to show the prudency of this claim, the authors analyze the paradox well known among the experts on Middle-East politics: the absence of a large Sunni coalition against Iran, which should have emerged following a realistic logic of the balance of power. This paper shows that the states capable of forming this coalition consider various interpretations of the Sunni ideology more dangerous than the Shia ideology represented by Iran.

The presented study is devoted to the debates on the contribution of the USSR to the victory over Nazism at the youth structures of the Council of Europe and to the role of those debates in the formation of national and state identity of the younger generation, including in the post-Soviet countries. Within the framework of such discussions, the researcher identifies the key narratives of the USSR’s contribution to the victory over Nazism at the youth structures of the Council of Europe. The relationship between the position of the speakers representing the youth and the discourse of the governing structures of the Council of Europe is being traced. The article presents an assessment of the impact of the memorial narratives of the Council of Europe on the mode of national and state identity of the youth (counting the post-Soviet countries). The author carries out research on the content of the Council of Europe’s World War II Memorial Policy and the contribution of the USSR to the victory over Nazism. The key mnemonic actors of the Council of Europe are identified. The structure of the image of the Soviet Union in the framework of the memorial narratives of the Council of Europe is studied. The practice of holding memorial events at the youth platforms of the Council of Europe is elucidated, taking into account the specifics of the methods and educational technologies used. The vector of building a memorial regime in relation to the role of the Soviet Union in the victory over Nazism is characterized.

Currently, the problem of extremism and terrorism remains one of the most serious issues for both the international community and the Russian Federation. The methods of extremist influence have been changing intensively in the last two or three years, becoming more sophisticated and unexpected. Along with the law enforcement agencies, the scientific community is also facing new challenges in studying prevention of extremism. Many authors pay attention to extremism prevention among young people. The article examines the present-day images of young people, analyzes the characteristics of extremism among youngsters, and substantiates their connection with the socio-age and historical-cultural aspects. The paper explores the interaction between educational work and the efforts to prevent religious extremism and provides international experience in countering youth extremism. Special attention is paid to the formation of students’ civic position, developing comprehensive approaches to solving social problems and ensuring security in educational institutions. The author of the article examines the publications from three scientific citation databases: the Russian Science Citation Index, the Google Academy and the Russian State Library. In the years 2020–2025, the issue of preventing religious and ethnic extremism turns out to be of interest to the scholars of all stripes – to PhDs, candidates of political sciences, and those who have graduated from the master’s degree courses. The reason of the increased importance of this topic in recent years lies, on the one hand, in the current events that are causing new manifestations of extremism, and, on the other, in the interest of a wide range of researchers, who study the tight connection of extremism to many areas of society’s life.