Abstract: The subject of this study is the dynamics of the position of the right-wing populist party "Finns Party" regarding Finland's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) at the present stage (2011–2026). An analysis is conducted on the transformation of the party's ideology from traditional isolationism and non-alignment neutrality to justifying the need for Atlantic integration. During the research, statements from party representatives, program documents, and materials from party conferences were studied, reflecting the evolution of the position on membership in the military alliance. The aim of the study is to investigate the reasons for the shift in the official rhetoric of the "Finns Party" regarding Finland's Atlantic integration under the influence of geopolitical changes in the region. The significance of the political science concept of "Finlandization" and its role in the foreign policy shift of Finnish right-wing populists is also discussed. The main methods used include historical and systemic methods. In addition, the method of ideological analysis was used. The analysis conducted showed that the party's transition to supporting Atlantic integration is driven by rational realism, dictated by objective political factors. These factors include characteristics inherent to the "Finns Party" as right-wing populists (high dependence on public opinion, emphasis on national security issues) and the unique specifics of the Finnish political landscape (historical memory of "Finlandization," neutrality influenced by political and economic factors). It is demonstrated that the foreign policy shift was made in the process of reconciling the party's rhetoric with the demands of the electorate in the context of a national security crisis. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the adaptation of ideological positions of right-wing populism to new geopolitical challenges. The studied problem allows for determining the degree of inclination of right-wing populists toward political flexibility under the influence of external circumstances.

Keywords: Finns Party, Right-wing populism, Finland, Russian Federation, NATO, Finlandisation, Atlanticism, European security, Neutrality, National security

Abstract: The subject of this study is the process by which the memory of the Nanking Massacre became one of the central elements of the People’s Republic of China’s state memory policy. This work examines the evolution of perceptions regarding the events of December 1937 – January 1938 across three periods: from the limited commemoration of the Nanjing Massacre amid the dominance of a revolutionary-heroic narrative in 1949–1978 to the institutionalization of collective trauma in 1978–2005 and its subsequent canonization and international representation. The main research question is to explain why the Nanking Massacre, rather than other episodes of mass violence during the Second Sino-Japanese War, has acquired a special status in the PRC’s official historical narrative. In this regard, the study analyzes the symbolic characteristics of the event, the political conditions under which its memory was actualized, the forms of state commemoration, and the changing functions of this memory in the process of constructing national identity. The study combines a historical-descriptive reconstruction, comparative and problem-oriented chronological analysis, as well as a functional analysis of state memory policy. The conceptual framework is based on J. Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, M. Halbwachs’s concept of the social framework of memory, and A. Assmann’s theories on cultural memory. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the development of a model that explains the unique position of the Nanjing Massacre in the PRC’s politics of memory by correlating the event’s symbolic potential, the state’s political agenda, and the mechanisms of memory institutionalization. Six factors of the Nanjing Massacre’s symbolic potential are identified: the city’s political and historical significance; the concentration of various forms of mass violence; a high degree of documentation; the presence of foreign witnesses and international resonance; its spatial and temporal localization; and the possibility of a universal moral interpretation. It has been established that the combination of these factors created the preconditions for the symbolic generalization of the event, but did not automatically transform it into a collective trauma. This process developed after the launch of reform policies and was carried out by incorporating the memory of Nanking into patriotic education, the national calendar, museum infrastructure, official ceremonies, and the PRC’s international activities. It is shown that at various stages, the memory of the Nanking Massacre served identity-forming, legitimizing, consolidating, and mobilizing functions, and that after 2005, its mobilizing potential became subject to state regulation.

Keywords: Nanjing Massacre, memory politics, collective trauma, national identity, People’s Republic of China, Second Sino-Japanese War, memory studies, commemorative practices, institutionalization of memory, historical policy

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to define the theoretical and methodological foundations of territorial branding and develop a typology of subjects engaged in branding activities in Russian regions. The object of the study is territorial branding as a socio-economic and communicative phenomenon. The subject of the research is the mechanisms for shaping the image of a Russian region and the typological characteristics of the subjects involved in this process. The study draws on the works of Russian and international authors who laid the theoretical foundations of territorial branding and analyzed and systematized the experience of applying these technologies in Russian regions. Additional materials include the texts of annual messages (reports) from senior officials of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, reflecting the official rhetoric of regional authorities on branding and the formation of a positive territorial image. The methodological basis consists of historical-genetic, comparative, conceptual-terminological analysis, and a typology method. The research materials include works by Russian and international authors who laid the theoretical foundation for territorial branding and analyzed the experience of Russian regions in this field. The study's novelty lies in the development of a typology of Russian regions based on the nature of their branding activities, based on criteria of systemicity and the nature of their initiation. This typology includes five types, ranging from strategic to the virtual absence of branding activity. The concepts of "brand," "image," and "identity" are identified as key to characterizing the creation of a territorial image, and their relationship and specificity are examined in relation to the region as a subject of socioeconomic and political competition. The historical evolution of the understanding of branding is described, from the product labeling of the industrialization era to the identity-oriented model of modern times. The role of regional government bodies in Russia as the main actors in branding activities in Russia is highlighted, and the institution of annual messages from the heads of Russian regions is identified as a channel for communicating strategic and value-based approaches. The results obtained can be used in the development and evaluation of territorial positioning strategies for Russian regions.

Keywords: territorial branding, regional brand, place branding, territorial image, place identity, territorial marketing, regional governor's address, regional typology, brand co-creation, regional policy

Abstract: The subject of the research is the norms concerning human dignity in 145 active constitutional acts and the national-geographical models of constitutional regulation that emerge based on them. The study examines whether constitutions that are similar in regional affiliation form independent models of enshrining dignity and whether they differ in content, meaning by normative function, rather than just in wording; whether geography is a legitimate basis for such differentiation. The practical significance of the issue goes beyond organizing the material: the permissibility of doctrinal borrowings depends on the affiliation of the norm to the model. The problem is directly related to domestic constitutional law, where the interpretation of Article 21 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is often based on the German doctrine without checking the comparability of constructions. The methodological foundation consists of comparative law, formal-legal, historical-genetic, and structural-functional methods; the classification is based on six formalized textual features and verified through functional analysis. The novelty lies in the identification of eight models for enshrining dignity within a dataset comprising about three-quarters of the UN member states and substantiating the gap in common law. It has been shown that the models differ in the composition of the functions performed by the norm, with several functions being monopolistically assigned to specific models, and the main predictor of textual similarity is legal and linguistic genealogy, rather than geographical proximity. A pattern has been identified: the predominance of the restrictive function of dignity over the foundational function correlates with the weakness of constitutional review. Further research will involve establishing the exact year of the introduction of the norm for each act, a terminological verification against the originals, and the introduction of a variable for judicial practice. The interdisciplinary approach, relying on comparative law, linguistic analysis, and empirical data, adds particular value; the methodology takes into account regional legal traditions and allows for the identification of hidden patterns in the evolution of constitutional norms.

Keywords: human dignity, constitutional models, comparative constitutional law, constitutional diffusion, reception of constitutional norms, honour and dignity, non-derogable rights, limitation clause, constitutional review, human rights

Abstract: The subject of the study is the process of constitutionalization of universal suffrage, considered in two dimensions – as an evolution of the doctrine of electoral qualification and as a sequence of waves of textual consolidation in the constitutions currently in force. The empirical base was made up of a thematic sample "Claim of universal suffrage" from the Constitution Project database (132 current constitutions); The source is acts of constitutional significance (the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights of 1789, the French Constitution of 1791, the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918, the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966), as well as writings by representatives of the censorship theory and its critics (G. Jellinek, V. M. Gessen). The methodological basis is formed by historical-legal, formal-legal and comparative-legal methods combined with quantitative content analysis of constitutional texts. The appeal is developed along five lines: on the choice of the periodization criterion; on the reasons for the gap between the proclamation of universality and its implementation; on modern revisionist proposals to return to the property criterion; on the strength of the constitutional text. The scientific novelty consists in the reconstruction of the mechanism of constitutionalization: it is shown that the first generation of constitutionalism did not create universal suffrage, but the institutional channels of its later establishment – amendment, revision and statute, and that the difference of these channels predetermined the stable difference of national legal techniques; it is also proved that the same formula of principles was included in the constitutions of the wave 1989-2005 in three different ways – as an international commitment, as a political manifesto, and as a technical inertia. It has been established that property, tax, gender, and racial qualifications have completely disappeared from the current constitutional texts, remaining solely as objects of constitutional prohibition, while the border of the electoral corps has not stabilized, but has shifted to new grounds.

Keywords: universal suffrage, constitutionalisation, electoral qualifications, historical legal study, waves of democratisation, reception of constitutional norms, constitutional diffusion, international electoral standards, popular sovereignty, evolution of doctrine

Abstract: This article explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in managing information risks, exemplified by the public administration of the Leningrad region. Key discussion points include: the opacity of algorithmic decisions (black box problem), the potential for systemic errors and bias, as well as threats to citizens' privacy. The analysis results indicate that public entities integrating AI are a significant element of the digital public administration infrastructure and play an important role in strengthening information sovereignty. Three structural-functional blocks that form the core of public entities are analyzed: public information, political-legal legitimacy, and feedback. The role of AI in automating the handling of citizen requests, analyzing key themes of public-political discourse, predicting crisis situations, and creating conditions for rapid governmental response to citizen inquiries is particularly emphasized. The case study method is employed, based on content analysis of publications, feedback statistics, and institutional analysis of organizational structures. The author's method of participant observation is also used, as the author is an employee of the regional management center. The modern information environment of Russian regions is characterized by the emergence and spread of fundamentally new threats: disinformation, fake news, social engineering technologies, cognitive warfare technologies, personal data leaks, and much more. The state is compelled to respond to these challenges by creating a national system of official pages for governmental bodies and institutions on social media ("gospabliki"). Their functions go beyond traditional information dissemination and include tasks related to organizing public interaction with citizens, managing emerging information risks, and assisting in ensuring citizens' digital security. The initiative to establish public entities essentially represents an attempt to form and systematize the representation of "virtual structures" of government in social networks as an essential element of the digital infrastructure of public authority.

Keywords: official pages, public management, information risk, information sovereignty, AI, Regional managemet center, virtual structures, feedback, information policy, political institutions

Abstract: The subject of the research is the social relations that develop during the process of international cooperation among states to ensure the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and to prevent threats to international security and the protection of human rights, including the rights of children, associated with its violation. The focus of the study is on international legal norms, principles, mechanisms, and institutional forms of international cooperation among states aimed at ensuring the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, fulfilling relevant international obligations, and preventing nuclear threats in the context of ensuring the protection of children's rights. The aim of the research is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the international legal content of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the forms and institutional mechanisms of international cooperation among states to ensure it, as well as to determine the significance of maintaining this regime for preventing nuclear threats and ensuring the protection of children's rights and the interests of future generations. The methodological framework of the research is based on a combination of general scientific and special legal methods of cognition, namely, the dialectical method, the systemic-structural method, the formal-legal method, the comparative-legal method, the historical-legal method, the method of legal modeling, and the axiological method. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the justification of the international legal significance of the nuclear non-proliferation regime as a preventive mechanism that is important not only for maintaining international security but also for ensuring the protection of children's rights and the interests of future generations. Unlike the approach that views the non-proliferation regime primarily through the lens of nuclear weapons control and the prevention of threats to international peace and security, this work reveals its human rights dimension, which is expressed in preventing potential threats to the life, health, and normal development of children arising from the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the risk of their use. The necessity of considering international cooperation among states in the field of non-proliferation as an element of the preventive system of international legal guarantees for the protection of children's rights and the interests of future generations is substantiated.

Keywords: Future generations, Children, NPT, International cooperation, International legal regime, IAEA, CTBT, Preventive mechanism, Human rights, Nuclear threat

Abstract: The subject of the article is the change in the nature of great-power rivalry, in which competition among leading powers is decreasingly described through the material balance of power and increasingly through status, recognition and symbolic performativity. Contemporary world politics cannot be understood within the horizon of expectations formed at the end of the Cold War, when the notion of a cooperative order prevailed. That frame has vanished, yet the matter is not merely one of redistributed capabilities: the fabric of international interaction has changed. The system has undergone transformations affecting the symbolic, cultural and linguistic structures within which international relations are produced and interpreted. Realist approaches alone no longer suffice here. The aim is to conceptualise this shift and to propose a framework holding together the material and the symbolic dimensions of competition. The methodology comprises an analysis of the conceptual apparatus of contemporary international relations scholarship, a synthesis of realist and constructivist perspectives, and the incorporation of sociological concepts of recognition, performativity and social closure. The framework is compared with competing diagnoses of world order and with existing operationalisations of status. The novelty consists in introducing the notion of a market of recognition and in elucidating its mechanics through the triad of performativity, reputational capital and social closure. A specification of the market model is provided: the analogues of price, demand, supply, entry conditions and equilibrium are defined with respect to the exchange of recognition. It is also shown that material and symbolic balances move along different trajectories and that this gap constitutes the space of contemporary competition. Status appears not as a material quantity but as a socially recognised position presupposing the conjunction of power and prestige. International interaction is reconfigured as a market of positional goods in which influence is acquired through performance assessed by significant third parties. The transactional style is its operational expression. The results are applicable in international relations theory, in research on status and prestige, and in the analysis of foreign policy strategies. The principal conclusion is that a realist analytics of resources requires supplementation by a theory of symbolic competition, since a power that understands rivalry solely as the accumulation of capabilities loses to one that converts capabilities into recognised positions.

Keywords: status, recognition, legitimacy, great-power rivalry, performativity, transactional style, polycentric world order, market of recognition, reputational capital, symbolic competition

Abstract: The aim of this article is to demonstrate the contradictions of the constitutional process in Chile (2019–2023), which, being an example of democratic collective efforts to develop a new constitution, is linked to the preceding period of constitutional development and the challenges of today. The constitutional referendums (plebiscites) held in Chile in 2020 and 2022–2023 are viewed as an institutional response to the prior deep social and political crisis and an attempt to complete a long transition to a new constitution that would replace the 1980 Constitution adopted during General Pinochet's regime. The article analyzes the reasons for the rejection of the Chilean new constitution project, which was dismissed in a national vote ("Chilean national plebiscite") by more than 60 percent of Chileans. Based on this, it explores: the institutional role of the Constitutional Convention, the innovative content of the constitutional project, the negative outcomes of the constitutional referendums (plebiscites), and the participation of Chilean citizens in the discussion of proposals and voting, considering the obligatory nature of voting. The research employs general scientific (analysis, synthesis) and specialized scientific methods. The constitutional process in Chile is examined using dialectical methods to understand its dynamics, alongside institutional analysis, which acknowledges the contradictions and multi-faceted nature of political reality. The methodological framework also includes a comparative legal approach, which highlights the uniqueness of Chilean constitutional practices. The analysis of the constitutional process in Chile from 2019 to 2023 allows for the identification of several reasons and lessons stemming from the failed voting outcome, among which, in addition to institutional reasons, effective public participation and the factor of the so-called "detached citizen" are emphasized. The author concludes that the constitutional referendum ("Chilean national plebiscite") in Chile should not be viewed merely as a simple final procedure for confirming the decision of the constituent body. It represents an independent level of constitutional legitimacy. The failure of the constitutional project should be explained not by a single cause but rather by a configuration of institutional, political, and electoral factors. The novelty of the research also lies in an attempt to understand the Chilean constitutional process as a consequence of the transformation of political and legal relations and the search for legal responses to contemporary challenges.

Keywords: Republic of Chile, Constitution of Chile, constitutional process, Constitutional Convention, constitutional referendum, Chilean national plebiscite, indigenous peoples, rights of nature, draft of a new constitution, public participation