No 2 (2023)

Protecting the social security of the American households has been in the process of transformation, meeting more and more long-term challenges like demographic, financial; and facing new threats for well-being, like inflation. Though inflation doesn't dominate Americans' worries as the most important problem facing the country, Polls show the growing part of householders having problems with paying the bills; worrying a great deal about inflation, the availability and affordability of energy etc. The proposed Budget of the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2023 contains a wide-ranging list of government social spending initiatives, but the worries of Americans about the government regulation and social issues remain.

In the modern world, more and more attention is paid to the issues of strategic planning both at corporate and state levels. Sustainable socio-economic development of the state, improving quality of life of citizens and ensuring security depend, along with other factors, on effectiveness of strategic planning. Federal Law No. 172-FZ of June 28, 2014 «On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation» establishes the legal framework for the building and development of an integrated system of strategic planning in the field of socio-economic development and national security of Russia. Today, the approach to strategic planning in Russia is characterized by both systemic shortcomings and practical implementation problems. Of particular relevance to the topic is current difficult economic and geopolitical situation, in which inefficient organization of planning increases the risks many times over. As a consequence, it is extremely important to consider the world experience of state strategic planning. The article is focused on the planning system that has developed in the United States. The complexity of the approach, its flexibility, efficiency, harmonization of goals at various levels, tight integration of all elements of the strategic planning system (planning, forecasting, budgeting, management), strict monitoring and control of key performance indicators make it a possible basis for improving the system that exists in our country.

Disengagement between the West and the non-West has been becoming more and more noticeable by the early 2020s. The key examples of it are the confrontations between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia, the USA, its partners and China, degradation of relations between the West and Iran. In such situation cohesion between the liberal democracies should increase. But the Euro-Atlantic faced the phenomena of Trumpism and Brexit. In this regard the article tries to explore the elements of cooperation and competition for the US-German relations in political and military spheres during late February - early November 2022. The article stresses the absence of purely bilateral contacts at the highest level of the dialogue. The determination is shown in the context of the Biden administration’s policy named as «soft hegemony», the US expectations regarding the supply of German weapons to Kyiv. The paper compares the US and German approaches to manning NATO military groupings, especially Forward Presence Force. In 2022 Berlin tries to act symmetrically to the USA. Germany has taken into account the US expectations for growing European member states’ participation in NATO`s activities but at the same time skillfully realized its own ambitions as power. The article also analyses the ratio of approaches on the example of decisions of NATO`s Madrid summit (2022, June) decisions.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of largest American film companies («majors») in the local and international box office markets. To the study of the geography of most popular films in the world and its content character. The combination of the statistical method with content analysis through the prism of the theoretical framework of cultural and creative industries determines the novelty and relevance of the work. Hollywood continues to play a major role in the creation of the most popular films in the world. Analysis of the content of films revealed the "Hollywood standard" in their creation. The turning point was in 2020s. when for the first time in history China appears among the leaders of the top global films. Despite the fact that most Chinese films gain world-wide popularity only due to local box office, and their plots are often created within the framework of the "Hollywood standard," the size of this country in the film industry has growth prospects.