No 8 (2023)

The U.S. labor market quickly overcame the effects of the pandemic and 2020 recession. The unemployment rate has returned to its low pre-crisis levels, and the number of vacancies is almost twice the number of the unemployed. The key feature of the U.S. labor market is labor shortage in almost all industries and among all categories of workers. The shock of the pandemic recession accelerated some imminent processes, which led to long-term structural changes. This includes a decrease in labor force participation rate, mainly as a result of large-scale excess retirements, and an increase in telework. The favorable situation in the labor market enables the Fed to conduct tight monetary policy.

The widespread use of economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy has caused a growing interest in assessing the effectiveness of their use to achieve the strategic goals of the initiator state. The article summarizes the main characteristics of economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy. The features of modern U.S. sanctions policy are presented. Special attention is paid to the conduct of anti-Russian sanctions by the coalition of countries led by the United States in 2022 and the assessment of the achievement of the stated goals.

He NAFTA Agreement, which served as a personification of North American economic integration for a quarter of a century, was created by the United States in the early 1990s as a response to the successes of the European Community. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced NAFTA under the Trump administration, is aimed at solving another task - to counter China's economic expansion in North America and, more broadly, in the Western Hemisphere.

The article analyses the new tendencies in the development of international relations in the Asia-Pacific region, caused in first place with the change in the strategy of the U.S., aimed to contain China using the course of creation «the ring of its encirclement», which consists of American allies, partners, «sympathetic countries». This strategy arouses Chinese response, which methodically strengthening its regional influence. In the region there is a process of «the delimit of forces», growing military activity, formation of the new alliances, quasi-blocks, groups of countries,

The article examines the specifics of the situation in Southeast Asia (Southeast Asia) from the point of view of military security issues and in connection with the situation in the Indo-Pacific region (ITR). The author proceeds from the fact that a serious destabilizing factor in the region remains the presence of intraregional contradictions - political, territorial and ethno-confessional, which are used by extra-regional actors under the auspices of the United States. Having identified China and Russia as the main rivals, Washington improved its Indo-Pacific strategy, activated the activities of existing ones and began to form new military-political alliances, on the basis of which it is envisaged to create an Asia-Pacific branch of NATO to contain them. The author believes that Washington's policy in Southeast Asia is opposed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which proceeds from its central role in the evolution of the regional security architecture. In the context of the escalating rivalry between the United States and China, ASEAN sees a way to overcome the complex of regional contradictions in creating a security system based on mechanisms associated with ASEAN. In the ASEAN concept, the ITR appears as a region of dialogue and cooperation, not competition, open to China and other interested states to participate in the project. The author comes to the conclusion that such a statement of the question is justified both from the point of view of the strategic interests of the Southeast Asian countries themselves, and in general of the entire ITR. Analyzing the strategy adopted by Washington, the author believes that it becomes a long-term factor of strategic planning in the Pentagon. Its main goal will be to forcefully counter China's policy and put pressure on Russia and ASEAN, which seek to resist the dominance of the United States in the IT. In his opinion, in the current conditions of the situation, it is necessary to further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and China and deepen cooperation with ASEAN on the basis of common interests in order to ensure regional security and stability.