This article is devoted to the analysis of political and legal problems arising in the development of science and technology at the international and national levels in connection with geo-economic and geopolitical sanctions. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the theoretical approach to scientific and technological sanctions as barriers in international cooperation in the area of science and technology, which are of political and legal nature. In the course of the analysis, it was possible to prove the validity of singling out the category of scientific sanctions, which are selective, in contrast to political and economic sanctions that negatively affect the scientific and technological complex of specific states, but do not have a selective nature. The barriers that arise in the course of international scientific and scientific-technological cooperation are systematized. The nature of scientific sanctions has been established as barriers that have a strong-willed basis and are aimed at curtailing cooperation within the framework of certain organizational and legal forms. It has been established that the legal version of scientific sanctions is the unilateral termination of international contractual relations, as well as the adoption of decisions on the termination of ties by scientific and scientific-educational institutions that have the right to make autonomous decisions. The author concludes: formation and implementation of a special state policy aimed at providing legal support for special support for the R&D sector, as well as preserving the remaining scientific ones while developing and deepening alternative areas of international cooperation should be seen as a way to respond to sanctions challenges in the field of STI. This category of measures should not be perceived as a series of countermeasures that would lead to a further curtailment of the ISTC, but as measures that should ensure its development, including in other geographical areas and based on the increased use of scientific diplomacy methods.

The paper substantiates the expediency of introducing a new concept into scientific and practical circulation – cumulative economic integration. Based on the analysis of works on the theory of international economic integration, it is shown that the classical methodology, based primarily on the principles of the theory of B. Balassa, is only partially suitable for studying various forms of integration that are developing in the global economy at the present stage. In this regard, it is expedient to use the accumulative integration model, which takes into account the entire range of ties leading to the economic convergence of a group of interested states. A feature of accumulative integration is the readiness of the participants for multilateral or bilateral cooperation to achieve specific goals and the provision of privileges or special rights to each other within the framework of such agreements. The accumulative integration strategy expands the field for the development of mutual cooperation in terms of in volving countries with different levels of economic development, as well as areas of interaction. The accumulative integration can have various models, and accumulative integration itself in the future can either move to higher stages of international integration, or remain a compromise form of developing stable mutual ties for a long time to come. The conclusions drawn are supported by the analysis of concrete examples of the development of accumulative integration within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, APEC and BRICS. Some interstate associations that can use the strategy of accumulative integration are named.

Half a century has passed since the report to the Club of Rome “Limits to Growth” shocked the whole world, making it realize that we live on the finite planet in terms of its resource capabilities. The work is directly related to such concepts as “resource and environmental constraints to economic growth”, “limits to growth” and “sustainable development”. The Club of Rome is often credited with the idea of “zero population and industrial growth” as supposedly sufficient conditions for stabilizing the system. However, the organization’s reports emphasize that a strategy of zero industrial and population growth alone can only briefly delay the onset of a crisis, but not prevent it. Not all economists accept the ideas of the Club of Rome, this being only one of the theories of the development of society. At the same time, it is impossible not to mention the contribution that the theory of the Club of Rome made to the development of modern concepts of development, taking into account the task of preserving the environment, the planet as a whole. It is necessary to mention the concept of “sustainable development”, which became especially popular after the UN International Conference on Environment and Development (1992). The concept was adopted as a guide to action by many developed and developing countries, and first of all by China. It is noted that China is a world leader in the implementation of the concept of “sustainable development” in practice and has achieved significant success in this area. The predicted crisis at this stage was overcome due to the fact that in the last few decades there has been a noticeable turn to the green economic development in the world. In this process, the author sees the undoubted merit of the Club of Rome. The purpose of the article is to show its role in these processes. According to UN experts, China's population growth in the next thirty years will stop, and after 2050 it will be replaced by a reduction. China's rapidly growing economy in many indicators of sustainable development (resource and energy conservation, as well as servicization) has reached Western standards, in many respects surpassing them.

The article analyses the prospects of European steel industry decarbonization as part of the general accord to achieve climate neutrality and the role of decarbonized electricity in this process. The decarbonization of the EU economy started with energy sector but the focus of the EU climate policy gradually shifted to other carbon-intensive hard-to-abate industries, with steel industry as a major polluter due to Blast Furnace – Oxygen Converter cycle coal burning. The article shows that the positive experience of power sector decarbonization through coal substitution by biomass and carbon-capture retrofits are only partially applicable and do not deliver desired results. A much better solution is new low-carbon technologies of smelting reduction and direct reduction of iron, modified to achieve significant drop in CO2 emissions. Analyzing the development and implementation of low-carbon iron production technologies in EU countries the author shows that their natural limit rests with its dependence on secure green power supply. That means that the development of European green steel production is linked to availability of sufficient amounts of decarbonized electricity, and therefore, is dependent on the progress in EU energy sector decarbonization and its outcome. The chosen model of the energy system is also of high importance, because it will determine the ability of the countries to attract new production sites, and ultimately whether European green steel will be competitive on local and global markets.

The study of the cyclical nature of economic development became a subject of scientific interest in the 19th century. History has proved that the progressive movement of any economic system is not linearly. Periods of intensive growth are replaced by deep crisis phenomena. It was the severe global crises of the 21st century that forced us to pay attention to the topic of cyclicity again and consider the specifics of this issue in various economic sectors, in particular, in tourism. Studies of oscillatory processes in tourism contribute to the prediction of tourist activity, which is of great importance for the practice of tourism regulating, especially during a cyclic crisis. The uneven development of tourism is manifested at all levels: global, regional, local. In some countries, international tourism is developing faster, in others – slower, subject to the influence of both external and internal factors. This pronounced spatio-temporal organization of cyclical fluctuations of international tourism is of particular interest. However, the time series decomposition of inbound tourist flows by individual countries shows significantly different results both on the basis of the manifestation clarity and by the magnitude of the cyclical fluctuations. The purpose of this work is to investigate mathematically justified manifestations of cyclicity in the field of tourism on the example of a number of countries around the world.

The article aims at summarising the brief history and the current status of development of multilateral military, political and economic initiatives of the USA in the Indian and the Pacific oceans which target at containing the expansion of China and its growing economic and military power. An attempt is made to analyse these initiatives and alliances as a system, even though they may seem controversive at times, strategically heterogeneous and chaotic. The paper also attempts to evaluate the opportunities for the USA and their allies in the region to further strengthen these initiatives in the context of a sharp rise of tensions between the US and China in 2022 around the problem of Taiwan. This political clash instigated by Washington in the summer of 2022 is often regarded as a potential threat of a military conflict, so it is important to estimate to which extent the US-formed mechanisms of political and defense cooperation in the region have a potential for the solution of purposes of the USA in case of a “hot” stage of the Taiwan crisis.

The article shows how different approaches to regional development help accelerate and improve the efficiency of modernizing the Chinese economy. The authors’ conclusions are based on the analysis of the dynamics of indicators of industrial development and post-industrialization of China’s regions at the macro- and micro-sectoral levels, as well as official plans for territorial development. It has been established that China pursues two types of regional industrial policy. At the macro-sectoral level, policies have changed dramatically. From the beginning of the reforms, during the active phase of industrialization, which the Chinese leadership saw as a temporary stage of modernization, the development took place in the locations where it could be done as cheaply and quickly as possible, with the involvement of hundreds of millions of labor migrants. In 2010s the transition to the post-industrial prosperous society required the development of a system of cities as the basis of consumer demand and industry as the basis of most branches of the service sector simultaneously in all regions of the country. An information and communication space accessible to residents and businesses of all regions has been created. At the micro-sectoral level, regional policy has remained the same: each locality has a unique industrial or service specialization and is integrated into the chains of the Chinese division of labor. This is called a block economy of several thousand clusters, and each cluster has hundreds of enterprises producing a narrow range of similar products.

Being one of the world largest exporters of services, India also has a significant domestic consumption market, including households and companies, that attracts foreign services suppliers and investors. Many countries express significant interest in concluding comprehensive trade agreements with India to provide their national services (services suppliers) with preferential access to large national market of India. The paper provides analysis of the benefits accruing by partner countries from trade agreements with India that include trade in services. Consideration of the benefits of the agreements is carried out in two aspects: in terms of increasing the share of the presence of national services providers of partner countries in the Indian market, as well as in terms of having tangible improvement in the conditions of access to the Indian market. To assess the benefits in terms of market access conditions, a comparison of market access commitments taken by India in the framework of multilateral trading system and of preferential trade agreements with partner countries is carried out. The comparison is fulfilled both in the context of specific trade agreements and of specific services sectors.

The article analyzes the impact of geopolitical events that unfolded against the background of the introduction of numerous sanctions against the Russian Federation on Russian-African relations and the prospects for their development. The authors proceed from the fact that the weight and role of the African continent in world politics and economy is increasing. And, despite the pressure from Western countries, primarily the United States, African countries are demonstrating their interest in expanding cooperation with Russia. And in this regard, sufficiently effective efforts are required to expand the Russian-African partnership, in particular in those areas where Russia has competitive advantages, production capacities, experience and high competencies. These include nuclear and hydro- power, exploration and development of natural resources, military-technical cooperation, education, healthcare, including the fight against epidemics. In turn, Africa has more and more opportunities to reduce its critical dependence on the West and puts more and more emphasis on the countries of the South. Russia is undoubtedly interested in the African states as a country with high weight in the international arena, owning a large military-technical arsenal, upholding the concept of a multipolar world and considering Africa as a promising and effective partner.

After almost 20 years of rivalry with the United States and the West, the Russian concept of “soft power” has moved beyond the traditional building of a national image and public diplomacy based on such concepts as “exercising goodwill” and “search for common ground”, and has expanded its connotation, turning it from an “auxiliary tool of diplomacy” into an important part of “mental warfare” and “hybrid warfare”. In recent years, Russia, using such methods as mutually reinforcing the influence of traditional media and new types of media, closely integrating secret intelligence into the propaganda work of public media, and covertly infiltrating online media, has effectively intervened in the information war and the struggle for public opinion, associated with events such as the Ukrainian crisis, the US elections and the coronavirus epidemic, where, despite the existing structural shortcomings, it achieved striking results and significant breakthroughs. In the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States and the West countries have launched a series of longplanned combinations of propaganda warfare. The tactics of widespread vilification, suppression, and sanctions have reached unprecedented intensity. Russia’s former effective mix of opinion-fighting and hybrid warfare has been hacked and destroyed in recent years, and its soft power has been dealt a heavy blow. Further evolution of the concept of soft power reflects the Russian leadership’s understanding of the cruelty and complexity of ideological confrontation and political struggle in the modern world. Its experience and lessons in the construction and application of soft power deserve in-depth study and attention.

The article presents the results of the preliminary stage of a research project to study the values of student youth. The goal was to determine the current state of the ideological sphere of students in order to increase the effectiveness of the national youth policy and, as a result, provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their subjectivity. The empirical basis of the study was a series of semi-formalized interviews conducted in September-October 2022 with bachelors from a number of prestigious universities in Moscow (n=178) majoring in political science, federal and municipal administration, and management. The conclusions drawn during the study testify to the actualization of the axiological crisis experienced by today’s youth. This crisis is characterized not so much by originality as by the coverage of both virtual environments and real areas of activity. The assessment of the situation by the young people allows researchers to start looking for mechanisms to optimize value orientations.

Despite its legal uncertainty, the European Neighborhood Policy is enshrined in the sources of secondary law of the European Union. Through the Eastern Partnership, the EU seeks to extend its law to post-Soviet countries and become a “normative actor” in international relations, promoting its political and economic interests. Helping to maintain and strengthen stability, security and prosperity in the neighborhood region were stated as the main goals of the creation of the European Neighborhood Policy, and of the Eastern Partnership. Despite this, the policy pursued by the European Union, as recent events in the CIS countries show, has failed to contribute to stability in the post-Soviet space. The article deals with the legal basis and concept of the European Neighborhood Policy, peculiarities of its development and economic aspects of its implementation in the post-Soviet space, as well as identifying the causes of the contradictions in the region. The EU sees its role in promoting universal values in its foreign policy, relying on law. However, these values are used to cover political and economic expansion. Economic factors are among the main reasons for the spread of EU law in post-Soviet states. The development of legal relations between the European Union and post-Soviet countries has provided additional economic opportunities for European financial capital. The combination of these reasons provoked the emergence of additional sources of tension and conflicts in the post-Soviet space: primarily in Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, which have signed Association Agreements with the EU

The relevance and expediency of the study of the problem in this scientific article is due to the development and active introduction of new digital technologies in the developed countries of the world in the manufacturing industry, including agricultural engineering, and, in connection with this, the increasing interest on the part of the Kazakh state and specialists in the legal regulation of the planned digitalization of the agrotechnical engineering industry of the republic. The article reveals the content of the impact of digitalization on the activities of Kazakh factories of the agro-machinery industry, producing a variety of machines and equipment of an agrotechnical nature, on the legal features of this influence, on the development of intellectualized, automated processes at these plants, through which it is possible to radically change the essence of the production of agro-machinery plants of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the entire branch of agricultural engineering. Taking into account the world experience of digitalization in the process of analytical presentation, recommendations were made on the need to adopt a number of new Kazakh laws, new international agreements and conventions on the problems of digitalization and intellectualization of agricultural machinery plants in the country. The essence of the practical and theoretical significance of the results obtained by the authors is manifested in the fact that the production and sale of agricultural machinery are inextricably linked concepts, therefore it is logical that they propose to digitalize all stages of production and export of agricultural machinery produced in Kazakhstan. Based on foreign experience, the authors’ recommendations on improving the adopted acts of national legislation and new international conventions will lead to high indicators in the development of agricultural engineering in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The review is a synopsis of two historical writings by Ram Madhav, Secretary-General (2014-2020), Bharatiya Janata Party, that describe the pre-conditions of British India’s partition and emergence of two independent entities, i.e. India and Pakistan. Ram Madhav insists on the validity of his ‘reading’ of the causes and effects of numerous regroupings of forces within the national movement prior to 1947. R. Madhav calibrates various political groups and, then, investigates their views on various political and non-political issues. He examines the policies of the British Raj to divide the national movement on religious and communal lines. Subsequently, such pivotal definitions as ‘hindutva’ and ‘integral humanism’ are deciphered. Thus, the books abstracted seem to be an effective analytical tool for understanding India’s political development in the early 2020s. Moreover, Ram Madhav’s works overcome the stereotypes of Soviet Indology, inspired by the position of the Indian National Congress.