Highly charged political environment, which is peculiar to the current stage of international relations  development, is accompanied by an extensive media war. The problem of showing Russia on the negative side in international press was known and discussed since early 2000-s. Russian-Ukrainian conflict which started at  the end of 2013 – beginning of 2014 provoked foreign mass media to make a point of Russia and enhance the quantity of adverse statements towards the country. It seems that the aim of foreign mass media is to form an antagonistic image of Russia among the audience. The research under discussion is devoted to the problem of  the sentiment of showing Russia in English speaking mass media under the influence of Russia sanctions. News texts for period from 2012 till 2018 were analyzed. The whole period was divided into several stages: the first  stage is connected with period before sanctions; the others reflect different phases of restrictions’ imposition.  The authors suggested that foreign mass media is inclined to show Russia on the negative side irrespective of  the contents of political situation during the sanctions period. To approve this statement a detailed text analysis was provided to find out the following indicators: the total quantity of news, connected with Russia, in the stated period; the quantity of positive and negative words. It was found out that the sanctions imposition provoked the increase of total Russia media hits, but the increase of negative words was higher than the increase of positive words. Reviewing the contest of news from the perspective of correlation between the words showed that Russia-Ukrainian conflict  theme lost its significance, but the total level of enmity in news text remained the same and even has the tendency of increasing in line with the other political events.

The political and legal institutions of the modern Western world received their justification and justification in the idea of law, which is embedded in the philosophical systems of Kant and Hegel. Both of these thinkers are unanimous in that freedom is the regulatory principle of law, but it is interpreted in significantly different ways.  In the Kantian version, freedom is the basis of the individual’s rights, which is reflected in the legal system of Western societies, in the theory of “natural rights” and in the political principles of liberalism. In the Hegelian system, freedom is predominantly a public domain, personified by the state in its specific forms of realization of  the common good. It is Hegel who gives the systemic justification of the state-centric model of society. The Western world went mainly along the path of implementing the Kantian idea of law, during which it achieved  high perfection in regulating civil relations. At the same time, this model encountered fundamental difficulties in regulating the relations of social (religious, ethnic and other) communities and groups, including the relations of nation states. The Hegelian philosophy of law was to a large extent perceived by Russian legal theorists as corresponding to the political traditions of imperial Russia. However, the problem with this model is that, in its apology of centralization, it creates bureaucratization of state life and eliminates developed forms of self- government. The political history of Russia is indicative of the fact that in it the clash of the Kantian, in essence, idea of sovereign human rights and the Hegelian idea of the sovereign rights of the state gave rise to specific political and legal (constitutional) insolubility. In theoretical and methodological terms, the way out is the need to establish a mediating link between the private and the universal, between man and the state. It is this link that sees the idea of civil (civilian) property, which is justified by the theory of civilism.

An upcoming anniversary of the USSSR dissolution raises the opportunity to overview the tendencies of the  development of the state systems, emerged on its fragments. A retrospective view of this process, which has received various (sometimes contradictory) political and expert assessments, raises the main question – the viability and prospects of sustainable development of the former USSR countries.
The shared past continues to have a significant impact through the Soviet legacy, making these countries difficult  to analyze and raise questions about the effectiveness of common tools for assessing their resilience and stability.
The paper describes the application of the model of resilience and stability of the state systems, developed earlier in a co-authorship within the framework of joint research. The estimates obtained make it possible to form the  profile of some countries and determine the structural imbalances in the development of their state systems in terms of resilience and stability.

The article is devoted to the problem of the impact of the new economic crisis associated with the COVID-19  pandemic on the development of globalization processes. The authors focus on four classical streams (trade,  investment, human and information and communication), which cover most aspects of international activity. The authors note that the current stage of globalization is characterized by new interconnections and  interdependencies of national economies, and international factor flows, even before the spread of COVID-19, showed a weakening of the trade and investment component of globalization. At the same time, tourist and migration flows previously demonstrated their ability to quickly recover even after a slight decline during the crisis of 2008-2009. continued to grow until 2020, when there was a sharp stop. Particular attention is paid  to the impact on the globalization processes of the “Chinese factor” and digital technologies. China, as a “global factory,” is central to global value chains. Consequences of supply disruption due to COVID-19 has serious consequences for both MNCs located in China and beyond. Available forecasts show that during 2020 we can expect an increase in adverse trends in the development of globalization.
It is noted that the new crisis will accelerate the development of technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, which play a key role in restoring economies after quarantine. The decade after 2020 is likely to be the decade of the transformation of international production, the development of which will be determined by the pace and scale of the introduction of digital technologies. Unlike other areas of globalization, in the field of internet penetration and informatization, the pandemic played a positive role, significantly increasing the volume of  interstate traffic through the Internet and other communications. During this period, social networks, Internet commerce companies, new platforms received an additional impetus. In conclusion, the authors conclude that the restoration of globalization of consumers and the search for new forms and directions of their information and communication  interaction can give a new impetus to the development of modern globalization.

Geopolitical triangles play an important role in changing the balance of power in the international arena in the context of competition between traditional and emerging powers. In political discourse, there are several different interpretations of the concept of “triangle”. The formation of triangles occurs under the simultaneous influence of two factors - the political strategy of the states and the geopolitical situation. 
The article explores the configuration of triangles in the post-bipolar world. Particular attention is paid to the selection criteria for countries lying at the top of triangles: these are either the most powerful states (both traditional and emerging powers), or pivot countries.
In comparison to 1970-s with one strategic triangle (US-China-Russia) currently there are many regional  geopolitical triangles, representing predominantly ascending centers of power, which affect not only regional  security and maintain balance of power in the respective regions, but also have global impact. The article presents a theoretical overview of triangles based on an applied analysis of the US-China-Russia strategic triangle, as well as of two regional interaction schemes that are important for the Russian foreign policy strategy – Russia-India-China and Russia-Iran-Turkey.
The interaction in the strategic triangle of the RF-China-USA is analyzed in an article in the political sphere (within the framework of the UN, international institutes BRICS, SCO, EAEU, Belt and Road Initiative), in the economic and financial fields, infrastructural, scientific potentials are compared, as well as military potential and military technologies. For applied analysis of this traditional triangle, the theoretical scheme of L. Dittmer is  used.
The conclusion is made about the ideal configuration of geopolitical triangles and the redistribution of the power potential of traditional and emerging centers of power within the strategic triangle of the RF-PRC-USA.

The article is devoted to the challenge of the modern constitutional system of Germany by Islamic organizations. Mass migration from Muslim countries and the formation of “parallel” Muslim communities led to the fact that it was in this environment that transnational Islamist organizations such as “Muslim Brotherhood” found  their adherents and established their branches. The article analyzes the tactics of actions of the Muslim  Brotherhood transnational Islamic organization and organizations affiliated with it in Germany. These organizations are considered as an active subject with their own civilizational project for the reconstruction of the world. Based on the materials studied by German intelligence agencies, conclusions are drawn on the creation of an extensive  network of organizations controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, while publicly denying any connection with this  movement. The tactics of this organization is to use all the capabilities of the “legal” institutions of a democratic state for ideological propaganda and political representation.
The strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood remains unchanged - through the gradual “peaceful” Islamization of European society, come to a radical political reorganization of Europe on the principles of political Islam. 

In the modern world the development of armed conflict leads to chaotization of the world order at all its levels.
One of the manifestations of this threat is the strengthening of separatism, including the secession as its extreme form. Political practice shows that the secession the factor of long-term undermining of regional security. An  alternative to secession is the federalization of the fragile states that is an effective measure for struggle against  separatism and the resolution of the armed conflicts based on compromise. The article underlines that in the  majority cases the federalization in fragile states could be realized only with active participation of external actors.  In this regard the article explores German experience in the support of federalization in Iraq and Mali in the middle – second half of the 2010-s. These two countries are selected as cases of the Near East and Sahel regional systems. The scientific paper focuses on the usage by Germany of political-diplomatic and military tools. The article explores the evolution of the relations of Germany with the guide in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan) and Bagdad before and after the referendum on the question of Iraqi Kurdistan independence, 2017, September 25. In this regard the  author shows the changing of German military assistance as an indicator of FRG`s approach to the Iraqi Kurdistan problem. The paper investigates German approach towards the «Tuaregs` question», the features of usage by  Germany of diplomatic and military tools for the federalization of Mali. In the conclusion the author compares FRG`s tactics of the struggle towards the separatism in Iraq and Mali.

This article is an extension of the article published in «Outlines of global transformations: politics, economics, law» № 6, 2019 [Zhukova 2019], in which explanation of pension waves formation mechanism, its integration  in business-cycles, periodization and detailed analyses of the first wave of pension reforms are provided. In this article based on new macroeconomic and forecasted demographic factors, detected episodes of pension reforms the time frame and the characteristics of the second wave (2009 – 2019) is made, the third wave (since 2020) is predicted. The second wave in size is several years shorter than the first wave. It is characterized by more intensive and numerous pension reforms in the background of a similar number of macroeconomic shocks. The  reasons for this are macroeconomic problems, the mass element of macroeconomic shocks connected with economic slowdown, budget deficits growth.
The shrinking of the second-pillar pension system and its transformation into private hands become massive in scope. The reduction in the government’s pension obligations is accelerated. The third wave (since 2020) is expected to be the longest and the most intensive. The key characteristic is high probability of acroeconomic shocks connected with all macroeconomic factors sensitive for pension system to all groups of countries,  passing the point of tightening of demographic pressures. The thrust of reform is changed to contradictory courses of action. 
On the one hand state presence, pension system coverage will continue to grow. On the other hand state guarantee (minimum pensions, age and another restrictions on retirement) will continue to decline. The growth of solidarity of public pension systems, of «payments burden» on working people to assure a minimum pensions for older persons, less dependence of the amount of the pension on the total insurance payments made are expected. Funded pensions will become the responsibility of individually insured persons without the financial participation of  the State.

The article analyzes the changes that have occurred in the global financial system in the XXI century. Moreover, the study covers the global financial system in its integrity as a combination of different financial markets and  international financial institutions. Based on the analysis of statistical data, it is shown that the global economic  and financial crisis of 2007-2009 led to a reduction in international capital flows, a change in their structure (towards an increase in the share of foreign direct investment) and a decrease in cross-border financial activity. In  the post-crisis period, government debt and equity markets developed relatively more dynamically, while banking  activity was restrained, including as a result of intersectoral arbitrage caused by international financial system  reforms. The process of reforming the global financial system has reduced risks in certain segments of the global financial market (banking services markets, over-the-counter derivatives), but retained relatively less regulated segments that may be subject to risks of financial shocks. Changes in the global financial architecture have led to the formal involvement of emerging markets in the process of reforming the global financial system  (through the Group of 20) and to some strengthening of the supranational component of regulation. However, in general, the interests of countries with emerging markets both in the reform processes and in the construction of the global financial architecture are not fully taken into account.

The characteristic of a supervolatile “disaster economy” is given, in which the number of shocks caused by natural and man-made disasters is growing. The factors of creating such an economy at the global level are  disclosed. 
The review of discussions about the future of the world (economy, finance) after the pandemic - 2020 is made. New longterm trends emerging in such an economy and the deep changes associated with them in the economic and financial structures of the world and the West are forecasted. These trends include: the collective desire for greater autonomy of households and, accordingly, changes in their demand (growth of stocks, reserves, decrease in demand for rental assets, more desire for personal property, for the acquisition of  equipment and technologies that provide autonomy, development of offices at home and the transition to a different life model (to be the most at home – the least in the office and in the public space); the digitalization  of households; the increasing individualization of demand for products and services; deagglomeration (living in  suburbs or satellite cities); increased mobility; increased demand for goods and services related to the  protection of life and health. 
The global trends in the economic / financial behavior of countries are disclosed in detail: protectionism; government policy to keep “the economy on a respirator”; changes in economic ideology, in its “mainstream”;  the inevitable emergence of the concept of “economic sacrifice”; growing volatility of the global economy and global  finance. In particular, ahead: the development of the ideology of the “economy of fear”; demonstration of a new balance between collectivism and individualism; revaluation of the models of capitalism existing in different  countries; ideological revolution in global finance. The possibilities of an unfavorable scenario in the global economy and a strong challenge that still need to be answered are shown - is development or destruction ahead?

This paper deals with the geographical reorientation and product restructuring of trade as s a crisis-response strategy. We exploit the logic of constant market share analysis for decomposing the total change in export market shares into the contribution of the competitiveness effect and the structure effect in terms of  geographical and product specialisation and apply it to the case of 2008/2009 global financial crisis (GFC) in the ‘old’ and ‘new’ EU member states. Constant market share analysis considering both gross and value-added trade  data indicates lack of proactive reorientation towards the fast-growing emerging economies in either the EU-15 or the EU-10. The product structure effect played a relatively more positive role in the old EU members during the crisis, particularly on account of the mid-tech product group, but technology upgrading was more pronounced in the new EU member states.
While the analysis in this paper provides lessons from 2008/2009 GFC with respect to export pattern adjustments, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis differs from the GFC mainly in that it led to major global value chain disruptions which may lead to a certain degree of domestication, diversification and regionalization of GVCs implying trade reorientation from more distant countries towards nearby ones.

The EU economy is experiencing the third major shock over the last 12 years. First it was the global financial crisis, then the European sovereign debt crisis, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic system of the  European Union, that includes national economies and policies and the scope of EU economic policies, takes a severe blow caused by an external factor - the worldwide spread of an extremely contagious virus that threatens people’s lives and health.
The article aims at identifying the transformational resource of the EU supranational economic governance in response to a new severe shock.
Therefore, two tasks are set. Within the first one, this paper presents an overview of the European economic landscape on the eve of the pandemic, taking into account the long-term trends that emerged after the Great Recession and the euro area debt crisis. Four key features of the “new normal” are highlighted: slow economic growth, fragile labor markets, high levels of government debt and subdued inflation. We study the economic effects of pandemic, or rather, the confinement measures introduced by national governments, on these particular areas.
Within the second task this paper evaluates the effectiveness of the key economic responses the EU policy-makers and institutions are taking to counter the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to strengthen the  resilience of the EU economic system. This approach is translated into the reforms of the EU economic  governance under way now with a view of achieving a genuine European and Monetary Union. The paper concludes that with the creation of the single market and the euro the EU has taken almost full advantage of the negative integration. Аnd now to promote growth and employment it has to untap the potential of the positive integration, which benefits are
likely to spread unevenly across regions and social groups.

This paper explores the articulation of the resilience concept in the policies of the European Union to the Eastern and Southern neighborhoods. In the discourse of foreign policy and security of the EU Global Strategy 2016, this concept appears as a key one. The idea is to empower the neighboring countries in their autonomous  efforts to build such resilience that would allow them to absorb a wide range of security threats without projecting them on the European Union. An analysis of the place of resilience in the evolution of the  European Neighborhood Policy, as well as in relations with neighbors to the East and South, allows us to draw conclusions regarding the novelty of the approach, as well as the prospects and obstacles to its implementation. The EU policy is analyzed along key dimensions for the concept of resilience: systems, threats, and resources.  At its core, the EU’s approaches have changed little, which can come into conflict with the cornerstone ideas of resilience thinking. For example, there is a tendency to assess the social and cultural practices existing in the
neighboring countries through the prism of “right” and “wrong”, thus excluding them from resources of building resilience. In the case of the Eastern Neighborhood, Brussels did not refuse to promote here a full package of reforms aimed at spreading European practices to the states of the region. This is based on the perception of the region as a part of Wider Europe. The problems of the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East, on the contrary, are increasingly merging in the eyes of the EU with those of the entire African continent. In the discourse and the policy of the European Union, disregard of the region’s problems may impede the formation of higher-quality forms of resilience in the South.

The article examines the evolution of ideological and political attitudes, the essential characteristics and instrumental functions of modern populism using the case of the United States of America. It is well known that populism differs from other political movements in its direct appeal to voters / people as an undifferentiated social mass, and thus constitutes an effective means of mobilizing the masses of the population in a protracted crisis of the political system and its institutions. The instrumental effectiveness of populism is often used to regroup social forces necessary for society and to give the entire political system greater elasticity, to increase its responsiveness to the interests of the “street man,” that is, ordinary voter. The ruling groups, especially in the USA, have learned to use populism effectively as a force capable of reducing the intensity of social conflicts, as well as for the integration of the “dissatisfied” into the existing institutions of the state that they themselves need. The first, and very successful, example of this kind was the “new deal” of F.D. Roosevelt, the political result of which was the creation in America of a “middle class society” that was not susceptible to extremes of both the right and the left. At present, the overlapping civilizational “rift” and the political crisis have forced the influential forces of American society to turn again to populism as a proven means of modifying America’s development model and pacifying a significant part of the population of this country. The 2016 presidential election convincingly  demonstrated the powerful instrumental capacities of populism, manifested, in particular, in a certain renewal of the US socio-economic policy.
Similar processes of regrouping of socio-political forces are to be observed in other “institutionalized democracies”  of the West, which allows us to consider the “new” / “national” populism as a relatively stable and long-term phenomenon of socio-political development of the western world.

The process of ideological and political transformation of American conservatism under the influence of foreign  policy factors in the XXI century is discussed in the article. Foreign policy concepts of various types of American  conservatism (neoconservatism, traditionalism, social conservatism, libertarianism, paleoconservatism) are studied  based on Michael Frieden’s method of «ideological morphology». Two main directions of the conservative  foreign policy (interventionism and isolationism) have been identified. The analysis of the foreign policy aspect of  Trumpism as US version of contemporary populism is presented in the light of the ideological approach. The  characteristics of Trumpism as «thin-centred» ideology, which based on the antithesis of «the pure American people» and «the corrupt Washington elite» and a concept of «common will of the people», are under investigation in the paper. 
The research shows, that Trumpism uses concepts of «host» ideology (conservatism) to form its discourse. The connection between the international agenda of Trumpism and isolationist and protectionist ideas of paleoconservatism is determined. The influence of conservative ideological attitudes on the evolution of US foreign policy in the XXI century is traced.