In the last few years, attention of world think tanks to the development of the Black Sea region has increased significantly, which is mirrored in the materials of the American, European and Turkish expert and analytical communities. The authors of the research aim to identify and explore the main approaches to the formation of various geopolitical configurations of the Black Sea region in the discourse of Western and Turkish think tanks as well as the policies of the powers. The methodological basis of the study comprises the systemic, geopolitical and discursive approaches. The methods of discourse analysis are used to interpret the materials of foreign analytical centers devoted to the study of the problems in the region. The analysis of expert and analytical reports revealed the key recommendations of foreign think tanks that can be considered as possible further steps by the United States and its allies in the Black Sea region: (1) strengthening the military presence of the United States and NATO in the region; (2) building effective communication with Türkiye in order to dilute the existing regime of the Black Sea Straits; (3)  achieving active cooperation of the Black Sea states with Washington, Brussels, Berlin, London and Paris in order to draw attention to the Black Sea region and its strategic importance; (4) strengthening the position of the West in the Black Sea region through influencing minds and hearts of the population through the dissemination of universal values; (5) expulsion of Russia from the Black Sea region through the reduction of the Russian naval presence in the Black Sea.

Since the middle of the 20th century, the phenomenon of information-psychological confrontation and its components have been in the focus of attention of domestic and foreign researchers. As technology develops, the information front has been growing in importance/significance superiority over the enemy in the information and psychological sphere in the conditions of modern conflict is sometimes more important than superiority on the battlefield. Currently, in the context of global tension, there is another aggravation of information confrontation in the Arab world, the participants of which are both Western and Eastern countries, including Russia. The current configuration of the conflict is significantly different from all previous ones: the bloc nature of cooperation between countries is gone (as it was the case during the Cold War), while the development of information and communication technologies has allowed each side of the conflict to have an information and psychological impact on all countries of the region at once. To build the most effective national information policy, it is necessary to study in detail the approaches of other countries, determine the main and secondary vectors of their work, and identify the mechanisms of information and psychological impact. The analysis of the information and psychological strategies of the leading Western states (the USA, Great Britain and France) showed the absence of a unified approach to the implementation of activities in the information field at the theoretical and practical levels. The current state of disunity of the countries under consideration, while maintaining the leading role of the United States as the leader of the collective West, is caused by both historical prerequisites and objective political and economic reasons. Due to the current situation, as well as in connection with the active work to counter Western propaganda by Russia, China and Iran, the information and psychological campaigns of the United States, Great Britain and France are less effective than before, which nevertheless does not mean their complete collapse.

The article analyses the foreign policy trends of the G. Meloni government. It is stated that Atlanticism and Europeanism remain its constants. Italy’s reintegration “into the world of protagonists” takes place through the restoration of a strategic role in the Mediterranean by strengthening NATO’s southern flank and Italy’s gaining a leadership role in the region. The attitude to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, renewal of ties with Asian powers and African countries, changes in migration policy through the externalization of migration processes are considered. The authors suggest following the Meloni government’s handling of important foreign policy issues in an international context in which Italy no longer plays a strategic role and the EU is gradually losing its potential for self-determination.

For a long time, Germany was considered a bastion of stability where, despite the historical past (and, perhaps, because of its bitter experience), anti-systemic and Eurosceptic parties did not play a big role in the political life of the country. While in neighboring France, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark the Far-Right (and in the case of France also the Far-Left) forces have made significant progress, the waves of Euroscepticism seemed to have bypassed Germany. Even “Alternative for Germany” party, founded in 2013, at that time was neither Far-Right nor nationalist, and held moderately Eurosceptic views. Its main goal was to get Berlin out of the Eurozone, which was in stark contrast to the manifestos of other Eurosceptics in neighboring countries who wanted their countries to leave the European integration process. However, over the past 10 years, “Alternative for Germany” has transformed from a party critical only of Germany’s participation in the Eurozone, to the nationalist and Islamophobic party, and further to “hard” Eurosceptics calling for Germany’s exit from the European Union and its self-dissolution. No other Eurosceptic force has gone through such a major transformation in such a short time. Moreover, other Eurosceptics are trying to move away from their most radical demands in order to expand the electoral base. However, “Alternative for Germany” follows the opposite path – and at the same wins new voters. It is worth nothing that while other Eurosceptics are putting serious pressure on their governments and getting concessions from them, in Germany, despite the fall in the popularity of the key parties, they are not shifting to the right. This article explores the phenomenon of Eurosceptic forces in Germany and focuses on the “Alternative for Germany” party, which is still unique as it enjoys wide support among local Russian-speaking citizens.

The noticeable increase in both the number of strikers and the number of strikes in the United States, which have covered all American regions, is explained by complex dialectical relationships between the processes of globalization and deglobalization, in which trends towards deglobalization of the American economy are beginning to have an increasing impact on the forms of relations between labor and capital. Deglobalization can be interpreted as a reversal of trends in the socio-economic and political development of the American society that have formed over the course of 20–25 years since the early 1990s. The reverse nature of socio-economic processes in the United States means the revival of many traditional types of contradictions between labor and capital. These contradictions are characteristic of the period in which the main factor of economic growth and development was the national economy and which were pushed to the periphery of the relations between labor and capital by globalization processes. It should also be borne in mind the influence of factors of scientific and technological progress, in particular the development of artificial intelligence, and demographic shifts, in particular, the colossal influx of illegal immigrants in the period 2021–2023, in American society, which manifest themselves to a certain extent autonomously in relation to both to globalization and deglobalization. The most important driving force behind deglobalization in the United States is the coronavirus pandemic, which aggravated the relations between the social lower classes and the social upper classes in America. The main demands of striking American workers such as increasing wages and salaries, expanding the package of social services, mainly medical, and streamlining the personnel of firms and enterprises by managers also appear in the form of «timeless demands» of the labor factor to the capital factor, which have always been present in history strike movement in the United States since the 1880s. However, currently the epicenter of strikes is not the manufacturing, but the service sector, that is – information, education, trade, healthcare sector. And it is also a sign of the growing importance of the national economy. The increasing role and significance of the strike movement in the United States in recent years is a symptom of a general worsening of the relationship between labor and capital in the context of the growing political polarization of the American society that stems from the increasing confrontational nature of the opposition between the champions of liberal neo-globalism and conservative anti-globalists.

The authors have considered Canada’s sanctions legislation, as well as the jurisprudence of its application. As a result, they have quantified the existing sanctions regimes and made a classification distinction between thematic and regional sanctions. It was found that among the sanctions regime legally formalized in Canada, 5 are thematic sanctions and 25 are regional ones. It is determined that the regulatory framework is formed by 4 laws and 27 by-laws. In addition to direct sanctions restrictions (entry ban, asset freezing), the Canadian system of sanctions provides for related measures such as criminal prosecution for violations of the sanctions regimes and restrictions under the migration law. The authors conclude that the right to judicial review of sanctions in Canadian law is presumed, while administrative appeal is determined by specific regulations. Canadian courts in sanctions appeals focus more on the legality of the acts themselves and move away from the question of the actual violation of the rights and legitimate interests of the sanctioned persons, as well as the proportionality of the measures taken and the reasons for the listing. The amendments to the Canadian legislation adopted in April 2022 effectively legalized the confiscation of property under the sanctions restrictions, which was the world’s first departure from the classic formula of blocking assets while retaining the property rights of the sanctioned person. The authors conclude that the innovation is legally weak and that it is highly likely to be subject to judicial appeal.

Over the past decades, the activities of private military and security companies (PMSCs) have become diverse and expanded geographically. PMSC employees are engaged in logistics, intelligence activities, supply and maintenance of weapons systems, including armed conflicts. One of the US Department of Defense guidelines notes that there are significant benefits to the US government in engaging PMSCs. Contractors, unlike regular military personnel, can get to work on specific tasks faster due to their mobility of deployment. This flexibility allows for timely adjustments to foreign policy in order to achieve national interests. The activities of PMSC personnel are associated with high risk to life, which requires the adoption of a regulatory mechanism to ensure legal protection, including in the exercise of social rights and guarantees in connection with participation in armed conflicts. States have been discussing mechanisms to regulate PMSCs for over 15 years, but no international treaty on the issue has been adopted yet. PMSCs do not operate in a “legal vacuum”, but some aspects require a special international legal regime. The purpose of the article is to study draft documents proposed by experts from various UN platforms and the prospects for international legal regulation of the activities of PMSC activities.

Currently, sustainable development has become a key topic for the global community, reflecting the awareness of the urgency of environmental issues, social justice, and the challenges of ensuring stable economic growth. The ESG concept (environmental, social, governance) began to be developed to eliminate at the corporate level the challenges provoked by “unregulated” economic globalization, the main actors of which were transnational (multinational) companies, intensively conquering new markets, lobbying their activities in conditions of weak national government regulation in the countries where branches of these companies operate. Currently, the European Union is ahead of other jurisdictions in regulating the fundamentals of a policy of environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance. Ongoing efforts to standardize and make regulatory measures transparent highlight the importance of ESG in modern Europe. The purpose of the article is to systematize the key approaches to the development of conceptual frameworks for policies to support environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance (ESG) at the level of the European Union. The features of the implementation of ESG policy in modern realities in the context of global challenges are considered, as well as an analysis of existing European regulatory documents regulating the development of conceptual foundations for a policy of environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance. As a result, the key regulatory drivers in the field of ESG in the European Union are systematized, and the features of the modern taxonomy of green (sustainable) activities of the EU companies are revealed. It is concluded that the legislation in the field of ESG in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region is rather fragmented and the degree of uniformity of legislation in the field of ESG in European countries is higher than in Asian countries. The key aspects of disclosure of non-financial information on accounting for ESG factors and sustainable development goals by the EU companies and the main regulatory changes that occurred in 2023 within the framework of climate regulation at the EU level are identified.

The article examines the formation of global German cities features, their place in the international economic system and functions in Germany. The economic sphere allows even small German cities to become global. Using the immigrants and foreigners’ settlement example in regions and housing prices distribution territorial intra-city differentiation is shown. Housing prices were collected by using a proven author’s algorithm. The “immigrants – housing prices” relation helps to correlate the city districts spatial features correspondence. There are seven global cities in the historically determined German system (just like in India, and more only in the USA and China). These are Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and Cologne. It was found out that all cities are distinguished by a large number and share of immigrants and/or foreigners. In each city there are more than a third part of immigrant population. Immigrants have a significant impact on demographics, reducing the average age of the population. They often settle in more peripheral areas, near industrial or infrastructure facilities. There are also many foreigners from the EU countries in the cities. In general, expensive city centers were identified with a gradual decrease in housing costs in peripheral areas. The western parts of all cities are significantly more expensive. Prices have increased significantly in all cities, with historic city centers and commercial areas typically the most expensive. Of all the cities under the study, only Berlin has the largest share of immigrants in central areas with higher prices (this is due to the city’s history of division). In other cities, there is a matching of cheaper areas with higher housing costs. Urban centers experience a wide variety of prices and therefore an uneven distribution. The contrasts are particularly noticeable in Hamburg, while Munich is generally one of the most expensive cities.

The research on such a phenomenon as “post-ideology” in the domestic scientific literature cannot be called popular (at the end of October 2023, only 19 scientific works with the keyword “post-ideology” are included in the RSCI based on ELibrary), while Western researchers have been talking about the end of “old” ideologies even in the 1960s. Despite this, the phenomenon of “post-ideology” itself has been poorly studied and requires conceptualization. With this article, the author tried to outline the conceptual framework of the “ideology” phenomenon developed by other researchers, and, starting from the result, to identify the essential characteristics and attributes of “post-ideology”. This approach will make it possible to discover the similarities and differences of the phenomena under consideration, as well as to detect existing manifestations of post-ideology in the modern world. Thus, using the example of the political movement “greens” and their ideological platform that is environmentalism, the author shows that environmentalism cannot be classified as a classical ideological movement, but can be characterized as a post-ideological phenomenon. Other popular modern social and political movements, such as feminism, Black Lives Matter, transhumanism, populism, globalism, anti-globalism, etc., also fit into the resulting structure of post-ideology. The article provides a comparative table that shows the main differences between ideology and post-ideology.

The article is a review of the book “Social Science Careers beyond the Academy”, published in 2023 in the USA. Applied in its content, the book, based on examples from American practice, raises a number of important scientific and practical issues relevant to modern Russia: where outside the scientific and educational sector can specialists with scientific degrees in social sciences find work, what knowledge and skills will be in demand there and whether will they be able to return later to pursue an academic career and/ or combine scientific and educational activities with work in other sectors or with running your own business? The research and practical recommendations contained in the book may be useful for a wide range of Russian readers: students, postgraduates and young scientists to specialists from university career centers. The structure of the book and the methods of research and presentation used in it can serve as a model for conducting similar research and preparing scientific, practical and educational materials that are relevant and in demand in modern Russian conditions for the scientific and educational sector in the field of social sciences.