Abstract: The article contains the results of the analysis of China’s immigration regulation dynamics during the period of January - November 2020 in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The comparative research of changes in the epidemiological situation and immigration regime helps to study the example of the experience of a large scale usage of the principles of adaptive and agile management in the context of global uncertainty and a rapidly changing situation, and to detect the significant factors influencing the immigration policy of China. To solve these tasks, the author uses general scientific methods and research techniques: observation, description, analysis, synthesis, generalization, abstraction, the comparative method and other methods. The results of the case-study show that China, pursuing its immigration policy during the period under study, had to search for a balance between the necessity to eliminate the possibility of importing the new corona cases and the importance of maintaining and developing foreign economic relations in terms of the limitation of transborder mobility. At the same time, the case of China proves that, in the context of global uncertainty, the principles of adaptive politics with their complicated procedures of harmonization of controversial interests are more often substituted by the principles of agile management, which designates the transition on the governmental level to the trial-and-error management method. It’s obvious that the end of the pandemic will put on the agenda the issue of the evaluation of the adaptive and agile management experience, which requires the creation of suitable scientific tools.

Keywords: Migration Governance, Visa Regulation, Immigration Policy, COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Technologies, Digital Transformation, Agile Management, Adaptive Governance, China, Risk Management

Abstract: The research subject is the models of interstate cooperation in the Middle East region. The purpose of the research is to define the models of interstate cooperation in the Middle east and the peculiarities of their formation. The article considers the security issues including energy and economic security of the Middle East states. The authors give special attention to the problem of Israel’s involvement in the mechanisms of interstate cooperation in the Middle East. In order to conduct a detailed analysis of the models of interstate cooperation in the Middle East, the authors use the systems approach. Its application is conditioned by the fact that the formation of the mechanisms of cooperation in the Middle East was influenced by a range of socio-economic, political, religious and ethnic factors. The authors also use empirical and theoretical methods including synthesis and analysis. The research methods include content-analysis aimed at analyzing text content. This method is actively used by the authors for the analysis of the works of foreign and Russian scholars studying the topic under consideration. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the subject and the topic of the research, and consists in the formulation of particular models of interstate cooperation in the Middle East. The authors formulate the directions of cooperation and, based on this information, define the mechanisms of their formation. The consideration of the key models of interstate cooperation in the Middle East allows defining the key obstacles hampering the formation of effective mechanisms of cooperation which would be able to solve various regional problems. The authors arrive at the conclusion that the mechanism of creation of effective models of interstate cooperation in the Middle east is significantly aggravated by severe regional problems including ethnic and religious conflicts, the lack of a regional leader, the weakness of regional organizations, the involvement of extraregional actors, and the presence of a large number of terrorist organizations.   

Keywords: regional leadership, terrorism, energy security, regional security, interstate cooperation, Middle East, Iran, Saudi Arabia, sunni-shiite contradictions, Israel

Abstract: At the present time, in research and academic circles both in Russia and abroad the attempts to systematize the human security concept are being made. The purpose of this article is the systematization of the main approaches to the human security concept. The research subject is the human security concept. The research covers the main Russian as well as foreign approaches. The research is based on general scientific methods: historical analysis, the critical and the systems methods. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the systematization of the main approaches to the human security concept. Besides, the author formulates his own approach to this concept based on the existing ones. The author concludes that there are plenty of approaches to the human security concept. Thus, it is necessary to systematize them and define the borders of the human security concept. Until now, the common definition of human security hasn’t been formulated in the research practice, which leads to the broad interpretation of the concept and hampers the practical activity. We need a system view on global development that would include a human, a state and international organizations. It is necessary to enshrine the definition of “human security” in international legislation, clearly defining all main threats and challenges affecting human security, and to establish the approach common for all national standards through which the human security concept will be implemented.   

Keywords: conception, categories, fields, levels, referent, threat, approaches, human security, defenition, state

Abstract: The research subject is the manifestation of Euroscepticism in France, in the political arena and among the citizens. The purpose of the research is the definition of the prospects of French withdrawal from the European Union. The purpose is specified in tasks determining the structure of the article: firstly, the analysis of economic and political institutions of the EU which helps to establish the sources of Euroscepticism ideas in the Republic. Secondly, the analysis of the dynamics of Euroscepticism against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, which helps to find out how the 2020 emergency situation has influenced the growth of anti-EU ideas in France. The research methods include the political, sociological and historiographic analysis. The Schengen Zone has exacerbated the migration problem in the EU, the 2003 Dublin Regulation has unequally allocated responsibility of the EU members for refugees sheltering. The dependence of France’s economy on the actions of the ESCB, the lack of the opportunity to participate in economic decision making at the supranational level, the common currency system, and the political order of the EU are the key grievances of the Eurosceptics. The anti-EU ideas in France can become significant against the background of the growing popularity of the protectionist policy under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Brussels is not in a good position against external threats, and the EU members lack solidarity, the idea of a Frexit referendum can receive a new impetus in the context of the upcoming presidential election in France in 2022.  

Keywords: Dublin Regulation, Schengen Agreement, COVID-19, Brexit, Frexit, European Union, euroscepticism, France, European Central Bank, migrant crisis

Abstract: The global governance theories assessment is among the poorly studied problems in Russian political science, though its topicality in the modern age of civilizational confrontation is beyond dispute. Primarily, the necessity to study the key global governance concepts is determined by the need for establishing effective relations with the Western and the Eastern countries. The purpose of the article is to analyze and estimate the main foreig global governance concepts, and it is achieved by solving the following tasks: 1) to consider the main definitions of global governance; 2) to detect the problem of legitimacy in international relations; 3) to consider the legitimacy of global governance. The authors give special attention to the underestimated source of global governance legitimacy - the liberal legal principles. As a political program, global governance is understood as a political and legal aspect of globalization. In recent decades, global governance theories have been adopted as a research program in the field of social sciences. Within the (neo)liberal institutionalism tradition, particularly, the interdependence theories, global governance approaches consider the consolidation of international cooperation and the transformation of the global system in which the anarchical system of sovereign national states is considered as a multilayer system including nongovernmental subjects. The researchers try to model power as “governance” without subjects which  are formally justified and entitled with the use of force monopoly. The future of global governance is connected with effective international law able to timely settle the arising disputes and deter possible aggression which, in the age of civilizational confrontation, can lead to the last war in human history. The effectiveness of global governance depends on what globalization direction the leading civilizations will choose: the force-based American way, or the way taking into account the interests of most peoples of the world.   

Keywords: world order, world politics, confrontation of civilizations, liberal concepts, international law, Western political science, globalization, Global governance, global peace, political science