Abstract: The importance of the issue under consideration is determined by the increase of the role of the energy factor in the international policy. Along with traditional actors (states), large national and transnational oil and gas companies and various international institutions aimed at regulating international relations in the energy sphere have become the significant actors on the international scene in the energy sphere. An important stage of reforming the common energy policy of the EU was the 2015 Energy Union Strategy. The object of this research is the current energy policy of the EU. The research subject is its key actors - the European Commission, Gazprom, the EU and Russia. Using the historical, logical, comparative and analytical research methods the author attempts to answer the question “How is the interaction of the key actors of international relations in the energy sphere characterized after the formation of the European Energy Union?”. The author concludes that having vested the European Commission with extra authorities in the sphere of common energy, the EU turned it into a strong independent non-governmental actor of the global policy and bilateral international relations in the energy sphere. Interacting with the EU member-states, Russia’s authorities and the executives of the Gazprom company, the EC increases its leverage among the EU’s institutions and strengthens its role as a mediator on the international scene. The energy strategy has transformed interrelations between the EU and Russia from strategic partnership to traditional cooperation. However, Gazprom has maintained its role in the EU’s market using progressive rise of gas supply. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the definition of the current interaction between the actors of the international relations in the energy sphere.  

Keywords: interdependence, bilateral international relations, European Energy Union, Russian Federation, European Union, Gazprom, European Commission, international cooperation, interaction, energy policy

Abstract: The formation of a global world is reflected and discussed in science forming the new direction - global studies. However, some key terms discussed further haven’t been thoroughly developed despite being widely used in publications. Therefore, the article gives special attention to the problem of defining the notions “global development” and “global world” in their broad and narrow senses. Besides, the global direction of science is still lukewarm about the studies of sustainable development in its global dimension, and it is important to connect the above mentioned research areas in the context of the global world achieving. The author uses the set of general scientific methods including conceptual modeling, the global, interdisciplinary and systems approaches, the historical and evolutionary approach, the hypothetical and deductive method, forecasting and other methods of studying the future. The author shows that the global world is formed under the influence of both the human activities and the natural factors - global processes and restrictions. On the way of its formation it is necessary to solve the main social and natural contradiction - the biosphere of the planet is not always able to satisfy the continuously growing demands of the humanity which leads to the limits of global development and can result in a global disaster. That is why it is important for the global development, which is determined to solve this contradiction, to be sustainable development which the global society is already oriented at. Ultimately, the authors suggest understanding the global world as a mature form of global development and social and natural interaction which can be achieved in the future by means of the transition to global sustainability.  

Keywords: global processes, global problems, globalization, global world, global cluster of knowledge, global studies, global development, global sustainability, globalistics, sustainable development

Abstract: The research subject is the geopolitical space as a system of links between geopolitical subjects. The research object is their political interrelations and the character of intersubject links. The author solves the problem of quantitative assessment of complex humanitarian and geographical categories and the ways of their mathematical expression, such as geopolitical position and its particula parameters for extracting a scientifically grounded geopolitical knowledge. Special attention is given to the geopolitics of Siberia as one of the most troubled regions crucial for Russia’s national security. The author uses the “discord and collaboration”, formulated by Arnold Wolfers in the period of the cold war, actualizing it to assess the modern intersubject links. The author composes the model of geopolitical position of the region which is the relation of the geopolitical force of the surrounding subjects to the subject under consideration, where the each subject’s coefficient is geographical influence on the subject and the character of political relations according to “friend-foe” scale. The author composes the methodology of typological assessment of political relation and estimates the character of intersubject links for Siberia as a model region and its surrounding subjects. The developed theoretical constructions help to come closer to the quantitative assessment of geopolitical position as a type of geographical position.  

Keywords: quantitative methods, theory of international relations, theory of geopolitics, theoretical geography, political philosophy, geoeconomics, geopolitical position, political geography, geopolitics of Siberia, geopolitical space

Abstract: The article considers the key strategic directions and prospects of Russia’s energy policy in India. The research object is the set of bilateral cooperation of Russia and India in the area of electrical energy industry as a basis of stable foreign economic relations. The research subject is the achieved results and the prospects of development of joint Russia-India projects in the energy field. The authors systematize the key strategic directions of bilateral energy dialogue. The research is based on the dialectical method of scientific cognition involving the consideration of economic relations in their interconnection and development. The authors use the complex approach involving the holistic consideration of economic relations, and comparative analysis. The authors systematize the key directions of development of energy dialogue between Russia and India; special attention is given to joint projects in the area of nuclear energetics and the projects in the area of oil and gas production. The authors conclude that India region is one of the most promising among all the possible directions of Russia’s energy diplomacy.  

Keywords: foreign investments, energy strategy of Russia, nuclear energy, oil and gas production, energy policy, Russian-Indian relations, energy dialogue, prospects of energy cooperation, foreign economic activity, energy security

Abstract: The purpose of the work is to study the changing geography of international security in the modern age of civilizational confrontation. To achieve this goal the authors solve several tasks: 1) the authors consider the understanding of the territory of a nation-state in the modern studies; 2) the authors study the problem of blurring the areas of war and peace; 3) the authors consider the new geography of  power beyond national borders; 4) the authors analyze the methods and approaches to studying the new geopolitical landscape of the modernity in the age of civilizational confrontation. The results of the research can be used for the preparation of general and special courses in political science, sociology, geopolitics, and the history of international relations. The research methodology includes general scientific and comparative analysis, the historical and logical, and specific methods of political science (event-analysis, case-study, expert assessment). The authors study the modern interpretations of the theory of a nation-state, consider the problem of blurring the areas of war and peace and the key aspects of the new geography of power beyond state borders, analyze the key methods and approaches to studying the new geopolitical landscape of the modernity in the age of civilizational confrontation. In spite of the tendencies indicating the renaissance of nationalism in the modern civilizational confrontation, the larger structural transformations in the world policy still point at the necessity to solve security problems taking into account the geographical borders of a state and the current state of the globalising world. Blurring the borders between the areas of war and peace will mean the decrease of effectiveness of the policy of containment or strategical negotiations which is based on the understanding of states as unitary subjects.  

Keywords: the geography of global security, civilizational conflict, the clash of civilizations, national state, national security, national interest, security, political science, globalization, international law

Abstract: The article analyzes the modern form of France’s military presence in Sahel-Saharan region - the operation Barkhane. The main attention is given to the purpose and the tasks of the operation, the involved forces and finances, and foreign policy motives which France uses to justify its military involvement. Special attention is given to the weak aspects of the expedition - from the obscure situation with  funding and equipment, able to operate in the desert conditions, to the unreliability of the five Sahel countries. The authors also study the variants of the operation Barkhane termination, which can be considered by the French government. To study all the aspects of the problem as a single set, the authors use the SWOT-analysis method. Based on this method, the authors successively study the strong and the weak aspects of the operation, the possibilities and external threats. The conclusions are combined in a summary table - an analytical extract of all the key factors promoting or hampering the maintenance of France’s military presence in the region. Such point of view turns the study into the applied research, and bears out its scientific novelty against the background of other scientific work describing the situation in Sahel in general rather than focusing on the problems and prospects of the particular operation. The authors conclude that Sahel campaign remains quite unsuccessful for France: its negative internal and external effects are still stronger than the positive ones. In attempt to improve the situation, the current authorities try to realize the only scenario acceptable for them: to gradually withdraw the French army from Sahel in exchange for strengthening military forces of the local states.  

Keywords: European Union, G5 Sahel, Mali, terrorism, defence policy, operation Barkhane, overseas operations, Sahel, France, Emmanuel Macron