The article aims to assess current trends in the evolution of Russian,
Chinese and American standing in the UN General Assembly (UNGA). This body as the
most representative international body with wide thematical mandate enables to assess
correlation in voting patterns of major powers and other participants of international
community. Therefore, commonality of positions could be used as an indicator of
positive recognition of national policy by UN Member-States. Such recognition could
become a source of international legitimation for a strategy of a major power in global
politics. The article starts with representing the key trend towards greater rivalry among
major powers since the early 2010s. It claims that this competition to a large extent
is exercised in institutionalized forums. It then examines an institutional mandate and
operational dynamics of UNGA. After that it engages in descriptive statistical analysis
of voting record in this body from its 60th to 71st sessions.
The study demonstrates the rise of unfavorable trends for Russia and China in UNGA.
Their positions receive lower levels of overall support from the whole population of
UN Member-States. The same trends could be observed within BRICS and among
their respective regional partners. The United States, on the contrary, improved their
positions in the UNGA throughout the 2010s. This task was simplified by an extremely
low base level of correlation in voting between Washington and other states. The
administration of Barack Obama was especially successful in consolidation of major
developed countries around the United States. However, due to the widespread
skepticism towards the UN in the American political elite, there are no guarantees that
the United States will be able to preserve increased level of convergence of political
positions with other states in future.

In modern world, as more and more states are reluctant to apply direct military force, the role of non-military instruments of coercion such as economic sanctions augments in international relations. In recent years economic sanctions have become firmly anchored in the system of European instruments of foreign policy. Although their implementation and monitoring still requires substantial improvements, progress and high level of consolidation can be witnessed on several recent examples. The article focuses on the evolution of the institutional basis and the mechanisms of coordination of the European Union policy in the sphere of restrictive measures, as well as detailed analysis of current tools of elaboration and implementation of various economic foreign instruments. Three stages can be distinguished in the evolution of European restrictive measures. Originally, there was no coordination as sanctions were introduced by nation states separately and individually. However, with the rise of economic interdependency of the allies there appeared new instruments for the exchange of information and opinions that have evolved into strictly binding mechanisms we can witness today. The example of Iranian sanctions shows what new schemes have been elaborated to increase the effectiveness of sanctions policy and how they have spread and developed, including to work out sanctions against Russia.

Xi Jinping’s diplomacy relies on certain institutional changes related to the foreign policy decision-making process. National Security Commission (NSC) was established at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee in November 2013. The paper analyzes the rationale behind this decision, personal composition and main tasks of the NSC. The author argues that further evolution of the National Security Commission does not exclude its transformation into a dual party-state institution in charge of foreign policy and national security. This move will reshape the structure of power distribution in PRC.

The new stage of EU – Armenia relations, open by the signing of CEPA, focuses on the search for new models of integrations that would make compatible the obligations in the EAEU framework with the wish for closer ties with the EU. While for Brussels this step is a symbol of revised eastern politics, for Erevan it underlines the country’s aspirations for multivectorness within existing structural constraints. The analysis provided in this article suggests that the current consensus launches a new model of a ‘silent’ compatibility of existing integration projects on the post-soviet space, when in the context of political crisis between the integration centers the de facto adaptation of opposing vectors is driven by the focused countries. The model is loose enough to be widely used, and it has an ambivalent potential of postponed influence on the multilateral relations on the post-soviet space.

The article deals with international transport corridors linking Asia and Europe both through the territory of the EEU, and bypassing the Union. The author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of existing and emerging routes, taking into account the interests of Russia. A special attention is paid to China and its initiatives in the transport and logistics sphere. In conclusion, the author notes that ensuring the attractiveness of the Euro-Asian transport corridors passing through the territory of the EEU requires a set of measures aimed at creating favorable conditions for transit.

The article discusses the potential entry of Tajikistan into the Eurasian Economic Union. The strategically important position of this country at the crossroads of trade routes between Central Asia, East and South Asia is mentioned among important arguments for this entry. Besides, the Republic possesses unique reserves of natural resources, including such strategically important ones as gold, silver, uranium and rare-earth metals. Tajikistan has a huge but inadequately used hydropotential. The author points out the advantages of such an entry for political, economic and military spheres of Tajikistan, as well as the possible specialization of the country within the Union. At the same time, the problems facing the country on the way to joining the Eurasian Economic Union are also discussed. Most importantly, Tajikistan does not want to lose the “freedom of maneuver” within its multi-vector foreign policy in the situation, when there is a growing conflict between the great states.

NATO – Ukraine relations for recent decades have been one of the key issues of the discussion on European security. Coup d’etat and the outbreak of civil war in 2014 have established new situation in these relations. Both sides have got boost for cooperation though new obstacles have appeared for their rapprochement. Analyzing the aid NATO and its principal members provide Ukraine one may consider what is the relations between NATO and Ukraine and what are the motives defining the proper form of aid. Despite broad political support for Ukraine NATO members are rather moderate in the field of practical aid. Arms supply is restrained. The dominating form of aid appears to be intensified joint military exercises and NATO’s military presence of Ukrainian territory. Though US and other NATO members reaffirm and enhance their unformal commitments and guaranties to Ukraine they also try to avoid steps that could lead to direct confrontation with Russia. Thus NATO – Ukraine relations may illustrate “alliance dilemma”.

In the run-up of the forthcoming presidential election scheduled for the end of 2018 the political situation in the Republic of Madagascar is worsening. The incumbent president Hery Rajaonarimampianina is being accused of possessing levers of influence on judiciary. However, in the author’s opinion, most of the citizens support the president, and the prospects of political development to a significant degree are dependent on the present socioeconomic situation on the island. Risks of mass protests are quite low. The paper acknowledges the effectiveness of economic policy pursued by the executive power. The current financial situation, as a whole, meets expectations, and the positive results of a budget execution are obvious.

This article showcases a detailed description of the first stage of research on the discourse of Ukrainian opinion leaders on Facebook conducted by a team of researchers representing MGIMO University, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Convinced that it is Facebook that serves as the primary means of communication of politicians with the population in Ukraine, the team built a data base consisting of posts written over a 10-month period by 176 profiles belonging to the representatives of Ukrainian elites, and applied machine data analysis. The research question was the following: What strategies on the conflict in Donbas are verbalized by the Ukrainian elites? The author faced three challenges and limitations of machine data processing and analysis:unsuccessful operationalization of terms; functional limitations of the Semantic Archive Platform, of which the author turned out to have unreasonably high expectations; lack of understanding of peculiarities of Big Data analysis. Nevertheless, it was the failure of this pilot research that helped raise crucial questions for further research, primarily on the criteria for shaping a data base and on formulating of the research questions for software. This experience turned to be essential for second and third stages of the research project that were completed a year and half after the project was launched. Hence the necessity to make public all the considerations on this research.

The article describes the situation which Libya has been facing in the period since October 2011, when Libyan leader M. Qaddafi was killed and his regime was toppled. The author analyses the ongoing conflict between the two opposing parties – one in Tripoli (in the west of the country) and the other in Tobruk (in the east of the country) – each of which has its own parliament, government and military forces. The balance of power is patchy and changing which makes further confrontation very unpredictable. The author also studies the UN mediation efforts to reconcile the opposing parties and to restore the unity of the country. It refers to parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya which are expected to take place in 2018. However, in the foreseeable future the normalization of the present situation in Libya is unlikely.