No 3 (2025)

The article addresses the issue of forming professional identity among novice psychologists-consultants in the context of social and professional uncertainty. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that at the stage of entering the profession, young specialists face a high level of anxiety, professional fears, and insecurity, which hinders the formation of their professional "self." The aim of the study is to identify the effectiveness of a group supportive format in reducing anxiety and strengthening identity. The methodological foundation consists of the concepts of professional identity by I.S. Kon, E. Erikson, J. Marcia, L.B. Schneider, and Yu.P. Poverenkov. In the empirical study, the sample consisted of n = 8 participants who underwent the developed program. The program included elements of the Balint approach, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). The Spivak-Hanin anxiety questionnaire and the uncertainty tolerance scale were used. It is worth noting the high level of anxiety among novice specialists, caused by the blurred professional boundaries and the lack of clear normative criteria for admission to consulting practice. The results showed a statistically significant reduction in both personal and situational anxiety (p " 0.01), as well as an increase in tolerance to uncertainty (p " 0.05). Qualitative analysis revealed an increase in confidence, reflexivity, and awareness of the right to professional activity. The developed group supportive program proved effective as a space for professional formation and the establishment of a stable professional identity among psychologists. The obtained data suggest recommending the use of similar groups in universities and professional communities as a form of psychological support for novice specialists.

This study examines the transformation of the international system from a unipolar order to a new bloc architecture. The analysis focuses on two key Global South formations – BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement – investigating their evolution within the context of global geopolitical changes after 2022. The research employs comparative and statistical analysis with a systematic approach, analyzing UN voting patterns, economic indicators of BRICS+ countries, and official statements. The methodology includes historical analysis of international organizations' evolution and content analysis of diplomatic documents. The study's key contribution is the conceptualization of "soft alignment" as a new form of international relations, distinguished from Cold War blocs by the absence of hierarchy and ideological coercion. The research reveals a correlation between countries' participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative and their voting on Ukraine-related UN resolutions. The author demonstrates the Non-Aligned Movement's transformation from passive neutrality to active strategic autonomy. The systematic analysis of UN votes on Ukrainian and Palestinian issues illustrates the changing balance of power in the international arena. The research identifies four key factors shaping African states' positions: regime security, economic interests, historical memory, and disappointment with Western solidarity. Special attention is paid to Western sanctions policy and attempts to interfere in sovereign states' internal affairs. The findings indicate the formation of a new international order based on multiple decision-making centers, rejection of any country group's monopoly on international law interpretation, and recognition of each state's right to its own development model.

This study is dedicated to the analysis of humanitarian aid from the People's Republic of China to African countries within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which has become a key instrument of China's foreign policy in the region since the beginning of the 21st century. In the context of chronic resource shortages, social instability, environmental challenges, and the repercussions of its colonial past, African countries require support that promotes their sustainable development. China, positioning itself as a representative of the Global South, actively develops humanitarian cooperation in the fields of health, food security, education, emergency response, and climate risk mitigation. The research examines how China's humanitarian aid is integrated into broader processes of economic and political expansion, serves to strengthen strategic partnerships, and influences the changing global order and balance of power in international relations. Special attention is given to the political motivations, ideological aspects of aid, and the peculiarities of the Chinese model of interaction with African countries compared to Western donors. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach, including the analysis of FOCAC documents, official statements, expert assessments, international statistics, as well as a critical review of the scientific literature and a comparative study of aid models. The novelty of the research lies in its comprehensive assessment of China's humanitarian aid as an element of foreign policy doctrine that combines ideological rhetoric with pragmatic interests. The author reveals that through FOCAC, China implements a "South-South" cooperation model, contrasting it with conditional aid practices from the West. China's humanitarian strategy includes food and medical support, infrastructure projects, education, and climate adaptation while actively utilizing memories of colonialism and anti-hegemonic rhetoric to enhance its influence. It concludes that despite positive outcomes, opacity, selectivity, and weak coordination with international institutions raise questions about the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of China's aid model, necessitating further scholarly research. The study demonstrates that China's humanitarian aid goes beyond short-term crisis responses and is increasingly used as a tool of "soft power" aimed at expanding political influence, accessing natural resources, and strengthening China's global image as a responsible leader of the Global South.

This article analyzes Vietnam’s diplomatic strategy in the Mekong subregion amid intensifying geostrategic rivalry between the United States and China. The relevance of the topic is determined by the growing importance of the Mekong subregion as a key arena of great-power competition in Southeast Asia, where political, economic, environmental, and institutional interests intersect, directly affecting the national security and sustainable development of the lower Mekong countries, particularly Vietnam. The object of the study is Vietnam’s foreign policy in the Mekong subregion. The subject is the strategic approaches, mechanisms, and instruments employed by Hanoi to implement a diplomacy of balance between the United States and China. The purpose of the research is to identify the specific features of Vietnam’s diplomacy under U.S.–China rivalry and to assess the effectiveness of the “bamboo diplomacy” strategy in safeguarding national interests. The methodological framework draws on the balance-of-power concept in international relations, as well as content analysis, comparative analysis, and case study methods. The scientific novelty of the study lies in its comprehensive analysis of Vietnam’s balancing strategy in the Mekong subregion, with emphasis on institutional mechanisms of influence. The results show that Vietnam demonstrates a flexible and subtle diplomacy within both U.S.- and China-led integration initiatives, extracting benefits from both sides to enhance its capacity to address non-traditional security threats while simultaneously reducing the risk of dependence on a single great power. The study concludes that, although the balancing strategy enables Vietnam to preserve autonomy and maximize national interests in the short term, it is insufficient to address long-term structural challenges such as water security and climate change. Consequently, Vietnam needs to move toward a more proactive role in shaping the regional security architecture.

The present study is devoted to analyzing the military-political confrontation between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America in the Indo-Pacific region. The focus is on Washington's strategic approaches to deter China, the expansion of the U.S. military presence, the development of new operational concepts, the strengthening of alliance ties, and the deployment of missile systems near Chinese borders. Simultaneously, China's countermeasures aimed at mitigating threats from the U.S. are examined, including the modernization of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA), the development of reconnaissance and command systems, electronic warfare, space technologies, and missile armaments. Special attention is given to the perception of these processes in Chinese state and expert sources and their influence on the formation of a stable atmosphere of strategic rivalry that sets long-term parameters for regional security. The study is based on the analysis of publications from Chinese state media, military documents, expert assessments, and a comparative examination of American and Chinese strategic concepts. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive consideration of the interaction between the two largest world powers in the Indo-Pacific region through the lens of Chinese evaluations and strategic documents. Unlike most existing works, the focus is on China's perception of threats and specific countermeasures taken by the PLA. It is shown that the U.S. views the strategy of deterring China as a priority, strengthening alliances and operational capabilities, while Beijing seeks to deprive Washington of advantages through asymmetric means, including missile forces, C4ISR systems, and electronic warfare. The conclusion is drawn that the emerging dynamics of military rivalry lead to increased strategic distrust, heightening the risk of escalation, and in the absence of crisis management mechanisms, could turn the Indo-Pacific region into one of the key areas of confrontation in the 21st century.

The article examines the features of Russo-Kazakh relations in the humanitarian and educational spheres as key areas of bilateral cooperation. Special attention is paid to the historical prerequisites for the formation of interactions, as well as the legal framework that ensured the progressive development of integration after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The main stages of the normative and legal framework for educational cooperation are analyzed, starting from the first intergovernmental agreements of the 1990s and concluding with modern initiatives within the Eurasian Economic Union and bilateral treaties of the 2020s. The paper emphasizes the role of higher education institutions, academic exchanges, and joint projects in strengthening the scientific potential of both countries. It also discusses in detail the foreign policy and economic factors complicating relations between Russia and Kazakhstan and their possible impact on educational interaction. The methodological foundation of the study is based on a combination of historical-comparative analysis, which reveals the dynamics of bilateral relations at different stages, and an institutional approach focused on studying the role of the regulatory framework and international organizations in shaping cooperation. The novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive examination of educational cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan as a sustainable element of bilateral relations, which maintains a positive dynamic even amidst geopolitical instability and political disagreements. The study demonstrates that humanitarian interaction, primarily in the field of education, can perform a stabilizing function in the system of international contacts. The conclusions of the research confirm that the establishment of university branches, the expansion of academic programs, and joint scientific projects lay the foundation for long-term partnerships and contribute to the preservation of cultural closeness between the two nations. At the same time, the prospects for cooperation directly depend on the ability of the parties to adapt to new challenges related to changing international contexts, while also balancing national interests and alliance obligations.

The object of this research is the strategic cooperation relationship between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation from 1992 to 2024. The subject of the study focuses on the periodization of historical stages of Sino-Russian relations, the formation of institutional mechanisms, the evolution of strategic factors, and models of international interaction. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the key factors determining the development of strategic cooperation between China and Russia, as well as to explain how this bilateral interaction gradually institutionalized under changing international circumstances. To achieve this goal, the work examines the stages of evolution and institutionalization of the strategic partnership, analyzes its driving forces and limitations, and assesses the new model of international relations emerging from this interaction and its prospects. The theoretical foundation of the research is realism, while also incorporating elements of constructivism and institutionalism to analyze the interests, interactions, and cooperation mechanisms in Sino-Russian relations. Furthermore, literature analysis, case studies, and comparative methods are used to study the history, practice, and influence of the strategic cooperation between the two countries. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that based on domestic and foreign studies, the dissertation represents the first attempt to systematically trace the entire process of evolution of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership from 1992 to 2024 and highlight how external pressure has facilitated the deepening of cooperation mechanisms. Unlike existing studies, special attention is paid to the logic of institutional evolution and interaction under sanction pressure. The work concludes that the Sino-Russian strategic partnership has formed a complex cooperation system in political, military-security, energy, financial spheres, as well as within multilateral mechanisms. This system simultaneously reflects external pressure, emphasized by realism, and exhibits features of institutionalization and identity construction within the framework of institutionalism and constructivism. Despite the presence of asymmetry and potential contradictions, institutionalized cooperation and strategic trust lend stability and uniqueness to Sino-Russian relations in the modern international order. In the future, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia will develop towards greater complexity, innovation, and sustainability.

The subject of the study is the trade and economic relations between Russia and China from the early 1990s to 2024. Their evolution is considered in the context of global economic and political changes, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, China's accession to the WTO, the consequences of global financial crises, and the impact of sanctions on Russia. The article analyzes three key stages of cooperation development: the establishment and barter schemes of the early 1990s, a period of stable growth and institutionalization in the 2000s, and the deepening of partnership in the 2010s and 2020s, characterized by rapid growth in trade turnover and a shift to settlements in national currencies. Special attention is given to the structural features of mutual trade, the role of cross-border interaction, and the influence of foreign policy factors on the dynamics of bilateral relations. The work employs historical-economic and comparative methods, as well as an analysis of statistical data on the foreign trade of Russia and China, which have allowed for the identification of patterns and trends in the development of cooperation. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the comprehensive examination of Russian-Chinese trade and economic relations as a sequential process consisting of three stages, each characterized by its own mechanisms and challenges. Unlike existing works, the emphasis is placed on identifying the contradiction between the extensive growth of trade turnover and the persistent structural imbalance in the commodity nomenclature. The findings of the study confirm that despite record trade turnover and institutional efforts to deepen cooperation, bilateral relations remain vulnerable to external shocks and depend on a limited range of commodity categories. The prospects for sustainable development are linked to the diversification of Russian exports, modernization of infrastructure, expansion of investment interaction, and the development of new mechanisms for protecting economic partnership from sanction pressures.

The subject of the study is the transformation of Italy’s party-political system in the Second Republic and the formation of new social cleavages affecting electoral behavior and the configuration of the party landscape. The object of the study is the contemporary Italian political space, including the main parties: the Democratic Party (PD), the League (Lega), Brothers of Italy (FdI), and the Five Star Movement (M5S), as well as their electoral and organizational strategies. The author examines in detail aspects such as the influence of Euro-skepticism, the immigration cleavage, regionalism, cultural and value conflicts, and populist trends on the fragmentation of the party system. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of party support across different regions, including North–South differences, as well as the interaction between party strategies, digital media channels, and intra-party organizational modernization. The analysis explores how new lines of conflict and structural changes in the party system shape long-term trends in political mobilization, redistribution of electoral support, and strengthening or weakening of party blocs. The study highlights under-researched aspects of the Second Republic, including the complex interplay of cultural values, migration, and regional specificity. The study employs a comparative-historical analysis, the social cleavages framework of Lipset and Rokkan, and Sartori’s model of party systems. The empirical base includes ISTAT demographic statistics, enabling the identification of spatial and temporal patterns in party system transformation. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the integrated synthesis of social cleavage theory and empirical analysis of the Second Republic, allowing the identification of new lines of political fragmentation and assessment of their systemic impact on the party-political structure. For the first time in Russian and international Italian studies, under-researched aspects are analyzed: the immigration cleavage as part of a multidimensional conflict, regional differences between North and South, the role of digital media channels, and intra-party organizational modernization. The study demonstrates that new lines of conflict contribute to the redistribution of electoral support among right-wing, populist, and centrist parties, increasing the fragmentation and volatility of the party system. The Italian case illustrates the importance of accounting for cultural and structural factors in comparative analyses of European party systems.

The article discusses the potential of social networks as a means of preventing radicalism in the Muslim religious environment. In this context, the author addresses the characteristics of contemporary radical Islamist ideology and the practices of its dissemination through social networks. It illustrates the forms, methods, means, and technologies used for the propaganda of radical ideas online. Data is provided on the specific activities of extremist activists in the Russian cyberspace, as well as concrete cases that illustrate new threats and risks. In this regard, the prospects for involving Muslim religious figures in creating positive media content aimed at educational and preventive tasks are outlined. This content would be presented in an appealing and interactive format for young audiences, explaining categories of Islamic morality such as justice, respect, and good neighborliness, which are the value foundation of Muslim social behavior. The methodological basis of the research is a systemic approach, along with the principles of interdisciplinarity and polyparadigmaticity. The main research methods include analysis and synthesis, generalization, and descriptive methods as a means of collecting, describing, and structuring empirical data. Contemporary radical movements use not only violence to achieve destructive goals but also what is termed media jihad (media war). In particular, they call on their supporters to create propaganda products using digital technologies and to disseminate them through all available social networks in order to involve young people around the world in extremism and terrorism. Essentially, "media jihad" represents a radical Islamist method of applying "soft power." It serves as a means of propaganda that aims to persuade and engage young people in destructive activities. As analysis of the activities of extremist activists on the global web shows, they "infect" the youth audience with a destructive ideology that cultivates violence and a unique form of hedonism. The scientific novelty of the research lies in justifying the necessity of developing network measures and methods for the primary prevention of radicalism, aimed at creating "immunity" against destructive influences. In this regard, it also substantiates the need to engage Muslim religious figures in creating positive preventive media content that addresses informal educational objectives.