Nº 2 (123) (2024)

The article is dedicated to current state of affairs and perspectives of institutionalization of US-EU relations. Due to different international and domestic political reasons, after the 2020 the two sides declared a rapprochement. The US is likely to re-main the most influential center of power of the current system of international affairs. Due to the process of European integration, the EU acquired an ability to behave as an international actor and the US’ global partner. An ambitious bilateral agenda includes not only pragmatic goals, but a long-term intention to cooperate. Institutions of bilateral relations are supposed to build strategic partnership regardless of concrete political situation. The period from 2021 to 2023 were favorable for such efforts, because of the White House retreat from the isolationist foreign policy. The article explores different formats of cooperation between the US and the EU with special focus on high level co-operation. Interparliamentary connections between the US Congress and European Parliament play a special role in institutionalizing the relations. Special attention is paid to the new frameworks of executive branch cooperation, such as Council for Trade and Technology, as well as a number of Strategic Dialogues on different topics. Institutionalization of bilateral relations is aimed at consolidation of economic and technological resources for strategic confrontation against China.

The paper discusses the main results of the development of maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the European Union by 2023. The study aims to evaluate the experience and developments of the EU in this specific area. Methodologically the analysis is based on regulatory documents, which establish the requirements of the MSP for its coastal member countries. Information from official EU sources on specialised projects and programs has been studied and summarised. The author drew a number of conclusions complementing the latest Russian research in the field of modern marine management. It is argued that by now the EU has created conditions for the planning of certain marine areas for various types of marine activities, provided political, institutional, financial, information, and communication support for such actions. At the same time, the EU is largely focused on cross-border cooperation. An important result for the EU was the organisational factor, within which the management contour of the MSP processes for individual territorial administrative units (country, marine region/subregion, European Union) is being built. The proven algorithms provide the EU with the opportunity to become one of the main global actors that regulate the promotion of MSP technologies in various areas of the World’s ocean.

Since the 1990s, Germany has been following the concept of the energy transition. A long political debate on the necessity of its implementation ended after the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, when a consensus emerged among the leading German parties on the main problems of the energy transition. However, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict of 2022 has actualized the use of fossil fuels, NPPs and has led to a change in the established positions of the German parties on achieving carbon neutrality. The authors of the article used discourse-analytical approach to study the issue and examined the changes in Germany's energy policy in the context of the crisis through the perspective of the transformation of the discourse of German parties. The aim of the study was to identify discursive shifts as well as dominant narratives in the rhetoric of German parties on the energy transition problem after the February 2022 events. It was assumed that the energy transition discourse would remain dominant in the rhetoric of the German parties in light of the onset of the crisis. As an alternative hypothesis, it was assumed that a number of German parties would shift towards the energy mix discourse, making it dominant and most influential, leading to a revision of the German energy policy. The content analysis of the FRG parties' tweets confirmed the alternative hypothesis. The authors conclude that after the beginning of the energy crisis, under the influence of public sentiment, the CDU/CSU, FDP and Left shifted towards the energy mix discourse, making it dominant and more influential than the energy transition discourse. This contributed to the adjustment of the German government's policy in the energy sector.

The article is dedicated to approaches to assessing the effectiveness of re- gional insurance networks in comparison with classic financial institutions established under the auspices of the UN – International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. On the basis of the evolution of the anti-crisis tools of international financial organisations, the place of regional financial mechanisms (regional insurance networks) is analysed as a new form of debasement of financial imbalances of the region, mitigating certain shortcomings of the IMF anti-crisis regulation model. Close attention is paid to the taxonomy of the Regional Financial Arrangements (RFA) in terms of forming a resource base and directions of the use of funds, their integration into global safety networks. The European Stability Mechanism is understood as a specified form of the RFA, which has the largest resources, the possibility of attracting them on a market basis and an extended range of areas of use. The author used specially tailored criteria to assess the effectiveness of the RFA in terms of lock of crisis events at the regional level. It is concluded that the RFA can only partially be considered as a lender of last resort for a group of major states, while a special model of the functioning of the European Stability Mechanism allowed to solve the tasks of anti-crisis regulation in the EU.

The article explores the approaches and tools the UK disposes of to address an increasing number of asylum seekers and illegal migrants in a post-Brexit environment. The study is based on legislative and regulatory acts regulating the UK’s asylum policy, as well as international agreements and action plans that enable the externalization of the asylum policy. It is shown that it took the UK a rather short time to put in place a reformed legal framework to incorporate the most restrictive migration-related terms in Europe. The development of the concept of a “Third Safe Country” passing through which automatically places an asylum seeker onto the Unacceptable category provoked their criminalization and led to a nontransparent asylum system with virtually insurmountable barriers to entry. The externalization of the UK asylum policy was implemented through traditional readmission agreements, the number of which grew rapidly during the period under review, and through new tools, for example, the Rwandan Plan which allowed the UK to redirect refugees to Rwanda. It is concluded that despite the ambiguity of the plan it creates a legal precedent, which threatens developing countries of increased migration burden against the background of little resources to overcome migration crises.

The article explores Belgium as a case-study of the phenomenon of “colonial amnesia” in the EU. Contemporary discourse on European history includes the Holocaust and Communism as central and unifying themes, while colonialism is determined as a distinct phenomenon. Despite its official condemnation, European states attitude towards colonialism differ. The authors argue that European states tend to avoid responsibility for the colonial-era atrocities and even deny their involvement. At the same time, public discussions over the silencing of colonial crimes are fueled by research that implicates European states in (post)colonial violence and negatively impacts their reputation on the international arena. Concerns over their international image forces the European countries to publicly apologise for their past. In 2022 the subject-matter of public apologies in Belgium was colonial violence committed by Belgians against the Congolese, as well as the events of the early 1960s, which led to the murder of Congolese Prime-Minister Patrice Lumumba, allegedly condoned by the Belgian government. Under the public pressure, former colonial powers are forced to at least “turn over” the painful page of their past in order to normalize relations with the former colonies. Using critical discourse-analysis and qualitative and quantitative content-analysis, authors analyze the apologies addressed to the DRC by Belgium authorities in the period of 2002‒2022. The article concludes that these statements are meant to frame Belgium’s responsibility exclusively in terms of morality by acknowledging the “wrong moral choices”.

The modern political science requires taking into account the influence of traditions, cultural and historical characteristics of society on political processes and political systems of different countries. Under these conditions, identity and tradition get back the right to direct political expression. Concepts that explain the state of society primarily from the point of view of cultural and historical factors are usually called civilization theories. The article aims at describing the foundations of the Russian-Byzantine cultural-historical type and its relationship with the Western Europe- an one. Scientific approaches to revealing the logic of interaction between cultural- historical and political-economic factors have been identified, and a method of world-system analysis has been proposed complementarily. It is concluded that stable political institutions in Russia have always been shaped under the influence of deep cultural and historical processes. During those periods when this pattern gave way to a mechanical choice of political institutional forms, crisis processes grew in society. In the twentieth century, a similar situation led to the emergence of the phenomenon of a “divided people” and a crisis of national identity. Society today is forced to overcome the far-reaching consequences of this crisis in the format of the special military operation.

The attitude of Russian-speaking people living in the Republic of Estonia towards the processes of European integration has undergone some transformation since the restoration of Estonia’s independence in 1991 to the present day. A significant part of the representatives of national minorities in this state governed by Eurooptimistic political elites is attributed to a quite widespread Euroscepticism. This article is an attempt to analyze the features of Eurosceptic views among the modern large Russian-speaking community of Estonia, as well as to assess the extent of the spread of Eurosceptic ideas there. A typical portrait of a Eurosceptic Russian-speaking voter in Estonia is addressed, especially one who lives in areas of compact settlement of Russian speakers in this state. A circle of Eurosceptic parties in Estonia has been identified that have influenced the attitude of Russian-speaking residents of Estonia towards the EU. The content of the Eurosceptic beliefs of the Russian-speaking voter is revealed. The reasons for the traditional popularity of Eurosceptic ideas among the Russian- speaking population are determined, as well as the extent of anti-EU sentiment in the Russian-speaking community of Estonia. A number of factors have been identified that traditionally influence the sustainability of Euroscepticism in regions of Estonia with a significant Russian-speaking population. It is concluded that if in the 1990s an impressive part of the Russian-speaking residents experienced neutral or even Euro-optimistic sentiments ( largely due to their unfulfilled hopes for a qualitative improvement in their discriminatory situation after Estonia joined the EU), then while they gradually discovered that no radical transformations were expected (largely due to Brussels’ reluctance to put appropriate pressure on Tallinn), their generally pro-EU position transformed into Euroscepticism. The paper concludes that currently the Euroscepticism of the Russian-speaking population of Estonia is characterized by a trend towards a relative stabilization of the Eurosceptic sentiments of voters. The author using institutional and discursive methods makes a forecast on the future development of Eurosceptic sentiments among Russian-speaking residents in the medium term.

The modern world is going through global changes that to some extent affect all nations. The goals, institutions and principles that were considered to be the basis of international relations have turned out to be unstable and often discredited. In this context, a new system of international relations is being formed, which should reflect the national interests of all states. The current crisis has a major impact on the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the effect is both negative and positive. Western sanctions directly target Russia and Belarus and indirectly they also affect other members. At the same time, such challenges contribute to greater cohesion within the CIS and can give impetus to closer cooperation. Thus, international tension can be the launch point to help intensify integration processes in the CIS and to form a new quality of relations in it. This article aims at determining the current state of relations between the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, assessing its strengths and weaknesses as an international organisation, and predicting possible prospects for the development of relations between the states. The article focuses on the current trends in the activities of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It examines the problems of cooperation within the CIS, as well as the causes of these problems, including both internal contradictions and increasing foreign influence. The author explores the advantages and disadvantages of the CIS and proposes three different scenarios of the further evolution of interaction between the Commonwealth’s member states.