Review: The subject of this research is the historical-philosophical and polemical context of the reasoning on history of the French philosopher of Greek descent Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997). The philosopher structures a complex polemical model that sharply responses to all attempts to determine society, being, history, and human. Even the recognized philosophical figures of the XX century, such as M. Heidegger, P. Ricoeur, J. Haberma, who have no biased attitude on philosophical knowledge, appear to be subject to critical analysis.  The author applied intertextual, hermeneutic and dialogical methods leaning on the texts of the aforementioned authors, as well as the data of modern critical literature. The scientific novelty consists in attraction of the relatively unknown to the Russian audience historical-philosophical material, and an attempt to reproduce the polemics and debates that were held in French intellectual environment of the late XX century. At the same time, the author did not follow the goals of historical and biobibliographical description, but rather return to the origins of the philosophy and history and revival of philosophical reasoning on history based on the researched material, demonstration of complicated, aporetic, heterogeneous and heuristic nature of the relation between philosophy, social disciplines and humanities. The author concludes that we cannot speak of the poststructuralist philosophy of history; the work of Castoriadis mostly represents philosophical criticism of theoretical grounds of social disciplines and humanities, although in the context of philosophical thought, it acquires an independent scientific meaning. The author ubderlines that Castoriadis polemicized Heidegger's thought, especially in regard of Ancient Greek civilization; the limits of Castoriadis' thought, such as radical atheism, social monadism, refusal to think communication; the advantages of Castoriadis' thought of history, his multiculturalism, his claim to restore genuine philosophy and democracy, criticism of determinism, scientism, cultural egoism.

Keywords: history of philosophy, polemics, history, subject, Habermas, Ricoeur, Heidegger, Castoriadis, philosophy of history, creation

Review: The key research focus of the article is the emergence and further development of multipolarity concept in International Relations academic discourse in the United States, Western Europe, Russia and China. Initially the term was rooted in Western IR school and was elaborated as an attempt to counter-balance USSR in the context of bipolar world. The article also covers the modern practice of using multipolarity discourse in Western international political science. Particular attention is paid to the formation of the concept of multipolarity in the Russian Federation and in the PRC in the post-bipolar world. Academic discourse of multipolarity is presented in close link to the practical dimension of the foreign policy concepts of the countries mentioned in the study. The re-emergence of multipolarity was closely associated with changes in the balance of power and an attempt to overestimate the role of superpowers in the world. The consistent development of the theoretical basis of the concept was carried out until the end of the Cold War in the framework of the Western school of IR. In Russian and Chinese studies, multipolarity mostly acts as an image of the desired world order. In recent years, a number of Western scholars have recognized the objective nature of a multipolar world and the need for strategic adaptation to its realities.

Keywords: balance of power, China, Russia, theory of international relations, world systems, bipolar world, multipolarity, international studies, hegemonism, international stability

Review: Whenever any state’s sovereignty is threatened, its first instinct is to protect itself. In 2015, the European Union was in the limelight, recording unprecedented numbers of migrants and as a result, refugee camps deteriorated to deplorable conditions. Illegal migration is perceived as a security threat in Europe; states were forced to take measures that compromise the very foundation of the European Union. Their politics suddenly became fuelled with anti-immigration sentiments, anti-immigration operations and agreements between the EU and migrants’ countries of origin were drafted and signed, tougher border security policies were put in place, such as erection of fences. All these measures resulted in the number of illegal migrations to fall to their lowest levels in 2019. This article will analyze Europe Union’s foreign policy on illegal migration between 2015 and 2019 while highlighting the extreme measures that some states within the EU took to mitigate migration. In doing so, it will highlight the moral dilemma posed by many Human Rights Organizations, putting into question Europe’s moral compass that it is known for. A conclusion is made that in matters of security, states are willing to take a moral background in order to safeguard its security and position in the global system.

Keywords: walls and fences, border control, policies, internal and external security, moral dilemma, illegal migration, sea patrol, refugees, Europe, European Union

Review: The subject of this article is the ever-rising demand for professional development for tertiary teaching faculty dictated by educational evolution and innovative pedagogy in Russia. In their article, the authors substantiated the idea that teacher development is a lifetime process starting from the initial pursuit of this career to retirement. Therefore, this study makes an attempt to review all available internal and external models of further learning, in-service and outside pieces of trainings that possibly will enhance teachers’ productivity and professionalism throughout their vocations. Driven by the consciousness that even the most recent approaches today seem outmoded, the paper aims at illustrating what options are available now in a particular country at a specific time-scale. The research methods used by the authors are the quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected, which demonstrate a paradigm shift in the urgency of continuous evolvement not only of professional, but also personal competencies mediated either by the administration or individual initiative.

Keywords: innovative pedagogy, in-service training, certificate courses, professional development, higher institution faculty, educational innovations, life-long learning, competative edge, reliability, competence

Review: The article analyzes the results of development of language globalization in the context of language globalistics. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors of globalization of the language, the reasons and circumstances of obtaining the status of the global English language. Special attention is paid to the concept of a global language network and subglobal languages in Internet communications. Perspectives of language globalization is presented in the context of language globalistics achievements. As a result of the analysis the authors came to the conclusion that the global English "users" are more important that "speakers" for language globalization. English as the main tool of Internet communication expands the composition of "users" of the global language. This will arise new challenges to linguistic globalistics.

Keywords: theory of language, interlinguistics, global language net, global communication, subglobal languages, language globalistics, language globalization, English, world languages, language policy

Review: The research of music of the XX century from the point of view of its connection with folklore is of great interest. The article is devoted to one of the prioritized directions in musicology – to the “composer and folklore” problem. Though this is one of the most important problems of native musicology touched upon in publications by G. Golovinskiy, I. Zemtsovskiy, L. Christiansen, G. Grigoryeva, L. Ivanova, etc., some of its aspects are still not studied enough. Among them is the choral compositions of native composers who create the Russian wedding music. The synthesis of different stylistic tendencies and rite wedding songs leads to the new quality of art thinking and describes a topically special folk genre as an essential field of art marked with genre, style and structural variety, variability of primary sources, as well as originality of methods of their realization.

Keywords: regional traditions, folklorized composition, wedding rite, wedding songs, folk genre, choir, folklore, songs, rite, traditions