Scientific and technological advances have always affected international relations. While in the middle of the 20^th century it was the nuclear revolution that had a significant impact on the international structure, in the beginning of the 21^st century the information revolution plays such a role. Scientists predict that in the forthcoming decades, world politics will be affected by breakthroughs in nano- and biotechnologies, as well as information technologies and the exploration of new sources of energy.

Following E. Skolnikoff, the authors believe that the impact of science and technology on international affairs may be classified as operating through one of four main mechanisms:

• changing the architecture of the international system: its structure, its organizing concepts, and the relations among its actors;
• changing the processes by which the international system operates, including diplomacy, war, administration, commerce, communications;
• creating new issue areas, new constraints and trade-offs in the operational environment of foreign policy, not only political constraints on international action, but also constraints imposed by the laws of natural and social science;
• providing a source of changed perceptions, information and transparency for the operation of the international system, and of new concepts and ideas for international relations theory.

In addition to understanding the influence of scientific and technological discoveries on the world of political processes, the article identifies risks and threats associated with the development of science and technologies, as well as the main areas of international cooperation in this field, while also looking at the economic dimension of scientific and technological processes. Particular attention is paid to the information component of the modern global scientific and technological sphere. In conclusion, the authors dwell on the role and place of Russia in the global innovation process.

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a number of legal, political, and territorial disputes in the former Soviet republics, as well as encouraged the decay of the Soviet ideology and the shaping of nation states and ethno-national identities. This caused a wave of internal ethno-national conflicts – the ‘identity conflicts’ – which are based on the problem of peoples’ self-identification. Meanwhile, a detailed study of the present state of these conflicts demonstrates that it is more relevant to talk about a supranational or supraethnic identity, rather than a national or an ethnic one. The Transnistrian conflict is a vivid example in this respect. At the same time, it is of high importance that efficient negotiations are organized to allow the parties concerned to come up with optimal solutions in the conflict settlement processes. This, first and foremost, requires the key elements of the conflict to be defined and carefully classified. Otherwise, there is a risk that the existing differences may be perceived by different parties in a different way, which is a huge obstacle to any negotiations. It can be vividly illustrated by the examples of a number of unsettled and ‘frozen’ conflicts, including the Transnistrian one. However, there still is no mutual understanding in the international expert society of what are the key prerequisites for ‘identity conflicts’. At the same time, the Transnistrian example clearly demonstrates that its specific identity, which has taken shape throughout the years among failed attempts to settle the dispute, is one of the main factors that cannot be neglected in the settlement process today.

The article studies the distinctive features of ‘identity conflicts’ through the example of the Transnistrian conflict and an analysis of different theoretical approaches on this issue. The article examines aspects of the current interaction among the actors involved in the negotiations, and analyses possible preconditions that could allow for an increased efficiency in reaching a settlement. The author concludes that the most important of the distinctive features of the Transnistrian conflict is that it combines identity, status, and territorial elements. The author believes that a settlement of this conflict that takes into consideration its complex nature may help to work out an efficient model for the settlement of identity conflicts’, which can then be applied to other conflicts of this type.

The article analyzes Russia's policy in its Far East area in the context of its foreign policy in the AsiaPacific Region with a focus on Russian-Chinese relations.

The key negative of the demographic situation in the Russian Far East is not the workforce shortage, but its poor quality. The massive immigration of non-Russian nationals from the Central Asian republics of the former USSR only exacerbates this problem. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is precisely emphasizing the lack of population in the Far East, which reflects the inherited Soviet-time attitude of people being the necessary instrument of control over a region.

The author argues that the sustainable control and balanced development of the Far Eastern territories do not require either an economic boom in this area or an expansion of trade. Nationals from South Korea are viewed as the best source of foreign labor, though this scenario is not very realistic under the present circumstances. The optimal level of Chinese immigration to Siberia should be directly defined according to the volume of investment from the potential newcomers to the local economy.

The economic benefits of Russia's new approach to the Asia-Pacific Region are mostly visible on the local level at the moment, specifically in the sphere of regional cross-border cooperation. As for large-scale energy projects, they are not too beneficial for the local economy due to significant tax breaks. The flaws of the national strategy of cross-border cooperation are obvious, as well as the flaws of the federal legislation in this field. These partly explain the obvious economic disparities between the border regions of Russia and China.

Russia should aim to ensure that none of its economic partners in the Far East acquire a dominating position. The optimal scenario for Russia would be a “concert of interests” of all principal investors and trade partners in the Far East – the U.S., Japan, Republic of Korea, and of course, China.

The article also deals with the scientific and analytical support of government decision-making in several policy spheres. The “eastern vector” of Russia's policy is being made in a certain international context. The fourth and fifth generations of the Chinese leadership are gradually moving away from the famous Deng Xiaoping's “strategy of 28 characters”. The discussion on China’s new future role is under way. Oriental studies in Russia are inadequate in meeting this challenge. There is an apparent decline of interest and a weakening of classical Sinological studies, as well as a decreasing competition in China-oriented analytics in general. Government actions to reverse the degradation of Oriental Studies in Russia are absolutely necessary.

Nowadays the problem of informational security has become crucial. The development of informational communications and the World Wide Web constantly creates new global challenges. The environment of Internet openness and freedom reveals not only technological threats, but also those related to content. Russia made an attempt to the draw attention of the international community to this issue by announcing the draft UN convention on international information security in 2012. However, this proposal disclosed deep contradictions between the Western and Russian approaches to the regulation of the informational space. The tradeoff between freedom of information and protection from destructive information that could negatively affect states and societies appeared to be the primary stumbling block in the dialog between the two sides. While Western countries are trying to avoid Internet censorship, Russia, along with several SCO states, points out the potential risks of an uncontrolled informational space, emphasizing the factor of foreign informational interference and its influence on the social and political situation in different states. These worries are quite reasonable and require a joint resolution.

This issue is closely related with the informational policy of states. Taking as an example the U.S.’ informational policy in Internet services, the author comes up with two aspects of the potential benefit that America receives from the proliferation of global Internet services. The technologies themselves and the full spectrum observance of social media activity are thought of as allowing the U.S. to gain wide control over its target audiences. However, what is more important is the U.S.’ domination in producing content for global information exchanges. By intensively filling the informational space with favorable content, it creates an unbalanced environment that could turn Internet services into a tool of information influence. Without fill this gap in the production of information resources applicable to the Web 2.0 context between the U.S. and other states, it is difficult to expect progress in negotiating a new architecture of information regulation.

Cyber security issues are becoming critically important due to the growing potential of ICT and the possibility of using it as an effective weapon by states. The United States, as the motherland of the Internet and one of the most technically developed countries, has been transforming its military forces since the mid-1980s by integrating cyber components into all the activities of the Department of Defense and other agencies responsible for national security. As one of the American strategic goals is the domination of cyberspace, the United States is interested in retaining all the possibilities necessary to conduct defensive as well as offensive information operations during the periods of both war and peace.

However, such a policy puts the national security of other countries under risk and threatens international security and stability by motivating other nations to work on crafting offensive cyber strategies and thus provoking an information arms race. The lack of international norms regulating conflicts in cyberspace, as well as of globally accepted rules of conduct, creates a legal vacuum. The author provides an overview of several alternative ways to further the development of an international legal regime for cyberspace, as well as the potential fields for international cooperation on cyber security issues.

The United States and Russia stand for different approaches when it comes to the main driving forces of multilateral negotiations on information security issues. U.S. officials are convinced that existing principles of international law serve as the appropriate framework that should govern the use of cyberspace in connection with hostilities, while Russia promotes the idea of a new complex global convention that would set an international information security regime. Despite differences in their approaches, Russia and the United States are consistently working on practical bilateral agreements that create an important basis for the further development of cyber issues on the multilateral level.

The authors speculate to what extent the concept of the post­Soviet space is relevant to Estonia, which is regarded as the most successful case of Euro­integration. To answer this question, they analyze the speeches of Estonia’s political leaders, the content of Estonian TV news channels, and the official version of national history represented by post­Soviet school textbooks. Although the Estonian leaders judge their country as completely meeting the criteria of EU­member states, unlike its “poor relatives” from Southern Europe that are known for their numerous crises, financial problems, and corruption, the authors conclude that the Soviet heritage in Estonia has not been yet overcome. The contraposition to Russia still dominates the official discourse, national identity, and paradigm. There are no new elements of identity building focused on the integration of society into a political nation. The political discourse has not been altered since the time of the USSR’s disintegration. Transmitted to different social strata and the young generations via mass media and school education, it places obstacles in the way of leaving the Soviet past and blocks trends to new developments. The arguments being in use to solidify the Estonian national identity have been already re­interpreted in Europe. Though “Freedom House” rates Estonia as a country with a fully independent media, the Estonian TV news­channels cover Russian topics in the same way as the other post­Soviet countries that are not rated in the same way. The narratives in history textbooks are constructed in line with the official politics of national identity building. The history of the country is substituted by the history of the eponym nation. This approach excludes the more balanced vision of Russia’s role in Estonian history. The image of Russia is reduced to the state’s government and to the political leader in power. The Russian “bugbear” helps to manipulate public opinion and compensates for the national complex and emerging Euroscepticism . As a result, the European space of institutions coexists with the post­Soviet space of public fillings, phobias, perceptions, and anti­Soviet (anti­Russian) myths.

Russia's relations with the Baltic States have led to the development of a set of myths, prejudices, and false stereotypes. One of these is the myth of occupation. The article examines the sources of this myth and analyzes the process of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia’s admission into the USSR. In the late 1930s, there was a dramatic situation in Europe. This situation prevented the preservation of the Baltic States’ independence. All of continental Western Europe came under the rule of Germany. On the European continent, Germany had only one strong contender, the Soviet Union. By the beginning of World War II, the Baltic republics were part of the Soviet Union. The article’s content analyses of processes of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia’s incorporation into the Soviet Union, which is based on a document of international law that 44 states signed, the Fourth Hague Convention. These documents define occupation as being the result of war or military conflict. Similarly, the 1949 Geneva Convention also defines the term "occupation”. In must be noted, however, that a state of war or armed conflict did not occur between the Soviet Union and the Baltic States in 1940. Consequently, there was no occupation. It does not remove responsibility for the Stalinist government’s repression, which began in the Baltic States after their entry into the USSR. The population of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia experienced a psychological shock during this time. In the mass consciousness of the population of the Baltic countries, a false stereotype was thus formed. The consequence of the Baltic States’ incorporation into the USSR thus overshadowed their actual admission into the Union.

Globalisation, social, economic and political integration, and the  IT revolution, which to a various degree affected almost all countries in the world, shape the new political reality of the globe. Although political differentiation and heterogeneity persist and sometimes even increase, the global political world gains more cohesion and unity, while the individual countries that form it, despite their diverging development trajectories, become more interrelated and interdependent.

Under these circumstances, it is especially important for both politicians, who make strategic decisions with global implications, and political analysts to study these global puzzles in order to obtain a coherent (integral) and multifaceted picture of the political state of the world. It should reflect such fundamental dimensions of global development as political system, political culture, political behavior, electoral process, party system and political consciousness. This would enable providing an observer with a dynamic image of the global political network, created by numerous interdependent elements. This network is defined by the existence and operations of nation-states, dominating in the current world.

Neither Political Science in general, nor Area Studies, nor World Politics as academic disciplines could provide such a panoramic overview, as they do not have such tasks in the first place. Even comparative politics is not able to depict it, although without its methodology, it is impossible to draw such a picture. The author claims that global panoramic overview of the current political reality requires a separate academic discipline with its own focus and field of study. The article offers a possible scheme of formation and the major potential attributes of this discipline, which is referred to as “world-politology”.

A book review: JONES, Bruce. Still Ours to Lead. America, Rising Powers, and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution Press, 2014. 263 p.

A book review: Касаев Э.О. Катар в ХХI веке: современные тенденции и прогнозы экономического развития [предисловие академика РАН Н.П. Лавёрова]. М.: Международные отношения, 2013. 182 с.

A book review: Maffetone, Sebastiono. Un mondo migliore: Giustizia globale tra Laviatano e Cosmopoli. Roma: Luiss University Press, 2013. 213 p.