Abstract: This article is devoted to analyzing the competition between China and India in the Indian Ocean. Both countries are becoming formidable marine States, actively developing the port infrastructure in the littoral States, and with concentration on foreign policy strategies attempt to shift balance of power and strengthening of their positions. The growing military fleet presence of China affects India’s strategic interests, which in the context of this struggle leans on ally relations, including with Japan. On the example of Zheng He expeditions, this research demonstrates the geopolitical importance of the Indian Ocean region even dating back to the Middle Ages. Analysis is conducted on the China’s "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" initiative and India’s counter-initiatives, including those associated with the Japan’s project “Partnership for Quality Infrastructure”. A conclusion is made on the leading role of China and India in development of port infrastructure in the Indian Ocean region. It is noted that with escalation of armed conflicts this infrastructure can be adapted for military purposes. Therefore, the implementation of the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" and “Act East” policies should currently be viewed not as attempts towards equal cooperation, but as a process of formation of two sizable military-economic alliances, revolving around China and India.

Keywords: Maritime Silk Road, great powers rivalry, port, Africa, Indian Ocean, China, India, navy, Asia and Africa Growth Corridor, grand strategy

Abstract:  This article is dedicated to the analysis of drug trafficking in the Western hemisphere. The subject of this research is the main routs of cocaine trafficking from Colombia to United States and the role of various transit points on the way based on the 2010-2018 data. The authors examine the key components of the problem of illegal cocaine trafficking in the region and the routes of its transportation across dry land, sea, and air from the top producer of this narcotic into the top consumer of this substance. Network analysis allows displaying the current system of relations in form of a network, highlighting the most influential figures therein, evaluate their connection and test model through mathematical analysis. The authors’ contribution into the research of this topic consists in its examination through the prism of network analysis and assessment of the role of each actor using the network toolset. The research results provide comparison of three main routes between Colombia and United States: through Pacific Ocean, through Central America, and through Caribbean Basin. It is determined that the shortest and most efficient, while at the same time more vulnerable, are the sea routes. The routes through Central America are longer and more complicated, but excluding transit points such as Panama, Costa Rica or Mexico, will allow to deliver substantial blow to the illegal cocaine trafficking in the Western hemisphere.

Keywords: cross-border organized crime, Central America, Western Hemisphere, drug trafficking routes, network analysis, USA, Colombia, cocaine trafficking, transit points, Cytoscape

Abstract: The main goal of this article is the approbation of the explanatory model of cognitive political censorship based on empirical material of the 2018-2019 presidential electoral campaign in Ukraine. The cognitive censorship represents a specific type of political censorship, which emerged simultaneously with “new media” and adaptation of traditional media to new realities of the “information overflow”. In this type of political censorship, access lockout to undesirable information (ideas) is done not through lockout of texts, but cognitive abilities that allow perceiving and interpreting these texts. The empirical part of this research includes monitoring of media information and online space, using the platforms “Medialogy”and “YouScan”. The critical discourse analysis was used to identify the strategies of cognitive censorship, presented in a number of sources and genres of politically important media information. The article identifies and analyzes at least three strategies of cognitive political censorship, suggesting weakening of the basic cognitive abilities: distraction, falsification and absurdity. The results of this research are valuable for further conceptualization of newest forms of political censorship, and represent practical importance for analysis of political processes in Ukraine.

Keywords: information flooding, information weapon, electoral technology, Ukraine, post truth, new media, cognitive political censorship, political censorship, basic cognitive functions, political censorship strategies

Abstract: The subject of this research is the approaches of U. S. “think tanks” to the problem of Britain leaving the European Union. Special attention is paid to analysis of the centers loyal to the policy of the Republican and Democratic Parties of the United States regarding one of the fundamental disintegration problems in Europe. The authors examine such aspects of the topic as forecast of Britain’s split from EU, consequences of Brexit for the United States and American-British relations, future of the trade and economic cooperation and question of ensuring security, recommendations and modeling of the most favorable scenario of Brexit from the perspective of approaches of the U. S. analytical centers. The agenda-setting theory is selected as theoretical framework to confirm the impact of materials of the U. S. analytical centers, which share the views of the Republican and Democratic Parties, upon the stance of one or another presidential administration on Brexit. The conclusion is made that Brexit causes concern of the American political and analytical structures, substantiated by its influence on the development of American-British relations that play the key role for the interests of the United States in Europe. The authors’ special contribution consists in determination of commitment of the selected for consideration analytical centers to the two major U. S. parties. The scientific novelty lies in tracing the difference between the approaches towards conducting foreign policy by analytical centers that support the Democratic and Republican Parties of the United States. Substantial differences of the approaches prove that despite the officially declared independence, the activity of the analytical centers is associated with the activity of political structures.

Keywords: European integration, Euro-Atlantic security, European Union, Great Britain, USA, think tank, Brexit, Republican Party, Democratic Party, agenda-setting

Abstract: Currently, the ethnic and ethnoreligious environment of Bashkiria and Kabardino-Balkaria indicate the growing influence of youth leaders. The results of field studies conducted in the two republics during the 2018-2019 demonstrate that this process is associated with generational change taking place among the Bashkir Islamic clergy and in the Circassian National Movement. The article analyzes the activity of the most successful religious leaders of Bashkiria – Ainur Birgalin and Ainur Arslanov, as well as the key Circassian youth leaders – Martin Kochesoko and Anzor Ashkhot. In the course of field research carried out in Bashkiria (2018) and Kabardino-Balkaria (2018 and 2019), the authors conducted expert interviews with the most prominent ethnic and ethnoreligious youth leaders of both republics. The conclusion is made that success of the leaders relates to the effectiveness of technologies applied for mobilization of the religiously- and ethnocentrically oriented youth. The use of Internet technologies along with other contemporary methods of group mobilization allows the youth leaders to successfully engage the existing ethnoreligious and ethnic institutions or dispute their legitimacy by forming alternative structures.

Keywords: youth organizations, change of elites, generational change, Bashkirs, Kabardians, Circassians, Islam, Youth leadership, religious mobilization, ethnic mobilization

Abstract: The subject of this research is the analysis of evolution of representations on the content of Indo-Pacific concept in the official discourse of number of foreign countries – the largest beneficiaries of advancement of the Indo-Pacific idea. The author traces the history of emergence of the term, clarifies the chronological and geographical benchmarks indicating the trajectory of entrance of the Indo-Pacific idea into the information space, as well as notes its conflictogenic risks. The conclusion is made that the actions of the United States on advancing the Indo-Pacific idea alongside cognominal strategy may be assessed as a semantic policy, one of the instruments of a complex set of measures aimed at changing strategic balance in the corresponding region of the world. It is demonstrated that due to different, at times diametrically opposed views of the entities formally constituting the Indo-Pacific region, related to the concept and objectives of this geostrategic and geoeconomic project, the development prospects of Indo-Pacific remain obscure. The author highlights that not only the origins of ideas on the Indo-Pacific as a geostrategic construct, but also the semantic policy methods of Japan and the United States, date back to heritage of Karl Haushofer and the times of the World War II. The author provides development projections of the situation in megaregion.

Keywords: Shinzo Abe, Russia, International Policy, Indo-Pacific Strategy, Indo-Pacific Region, USA, Australia, India, ASEAN, Symbolic Policy

Abstract: This article explores the problem of recognition of independence and definition of the international legal status of Kosovo by the leaders of the world policy in the period of 1998-2019. The aim of this work is to determine the key political and economic causes for the change in the position of the global community regarding the territorial and international legal status of the Republic of Kosovo during the decade before the declaration of independence of the Republic (2008), as well as in the following years until present day. Analysis was conducted on the results of the voting on the question of territorial and international legal status of Kosovo within the UN General Assembly, including analysis of the content of key conceptual documents on this topic – resolutions № 11601, № 11992, № 12393 and № 12444, then a conclusion was made on the exact reason for the recognition of Kosovo’s independence by a number of countries. In this context, study of the phenomenon of the response of recognition of Kosovo in 2008-2019 seems exclusively important and relevant from the scientific theory and practical points of view. Study of the reaction of the international community on this issue is especially relevant due to current assumed division of the world into two camps: countries that recognize Kosovo independence and those that do not.

Keywords: independence, international court of justice, albanians, serbians, global community, sovereignty, Metohija, Kosovo, UN General Assembly, autonomous region

Abstract: The object of this research is the symbolic politics and its internal structure. The subject of this research is the politics of memory as an element of symbolic politics, its specificity in modern Russian society, and prerequisites for the emergence of conflicts. A question is raised on the need for determining the interrelation of symbolic politics and politics of memory, as well as on specificity of similar relationship within the modern Russian political space. Emphasis is made on the fact that symbolic politics is directly associate with the level of political participation, since the demand for the formation and translation of certain political symbols is defined by the drive for legitimation of the existing order. Research methodology leans on the communication model of symbolic politics of Ulrich Sarcinelli, as well as process-relational methodology of studying the politics of memory of Jeffrey Olick. Separate aspect of research is Ulrich Beck’s concept of “risk society” from the perspective of transformation of structure of the political space. The author’s main contribution lies in substantiation of thesis that the risks of symbolic politics are related to changes in the roster of political actors, which leads to dissolution of the symbolic consensus within the society. The author believes that the deficit of development strategies and associated images resulted in centralization of symbolic politics exclusively in the sphere of images of the past, which became a substantial risk factor provoking conflicts around the interpretation and reconsideration of the particular “spots of memory”. The desire to minimize such risk consists in withholding problematic questions of the past, which leads to the absence of public discussion mechanisms, localization and regionalization of the vectors of symbolic politics.

Keywords: past, risk, risk society, conflict, politics of memory, symbol, symbolic politics, political space, development vectors, symbolic power

Abstract: This article examines the sociopolitical moods of student youth based on survey results conducted in the universities of Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts in 2019. The study carried out with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research was aimed at clarification of the relevant questions: how do the students in the South of Russia estimate the situation in Russia and the world, which sources of political information are most trusted, what is their attitude to protest actions, etc. The article explores the summarized results of sociological survey on the bases of frequency analysis; comparative analysis is applied for correlation with the data from other research. The respondents demonstrate the negative perception of lingering economic difficulties on the background foreign policy ambitions: over 70% feel escalation of tension in the society; and 3/4 of them would like to see noticeable changes. The main cause for possible protest actions consists in the fear of compounding economic problems in the country. A significant trend is the strengthening role of Internet sources and social networks in obtaining political information. The modern generation of youth is characterized by the high importance of personal values, readiness to defend their rights, readiness to political participation, respect of law. Young people also share the values of social justice, oppose war, and are environmentally friendly. A relatively high protest potential of youth is explained by the desire to defend their rights and restore social justice, acting within the legal framework.

Keywords: opinion poll, social and political values, protests, North Caucasus Federal District, Southern Federal District, students, youth, protest moods, patriotism, social justice