№ 1 (858) (2025)

The synthesis of nationalism, europeanism and atlanticism is becoming a distinctive feature of modern Eastern European states. Romania takes a special place in this context. The purpose of this article is to examine the peculiarities of Romania's foreign policy thinking, considering historical features and modern positioning. Studying the conceptual and ideological foundations makes it possible to determine how the state builds its foreign policy, as well as to predict some steps towards realizing its goals and interests. The article analyzes the national component, geopolitical ambitions, as well as European and Atlantic trends in the modern perspective. Special attention is paid to the influence of nationalist and Euro-Atlantic ideas on shaping the country's foreign policy, as well as their role in determining Romania's strategic priorities and goals in the international arena. Among the research methods used are historical and retrospective, to understand the genesis of the main foreign policy directions, as well as content analysis of documents related, among other things, to security policy. A literary review of works devoted to Romanian foreign policy and geopolitical thought was also conducted. The author comes to the conclusion that the modern foreign policy positioning of the state was influenced by the historical aspect associated with gaining independence, preserving the state and the nation, as well as the need to ensure security and balancing between great powers. Organizations such as the European Union and NATO have been selected as resources to achieve national goals. The article is of interest to researchers dealing with Romania's foreign policy, nationalism, and Euro-Atlantic integration.

The cultural and educational factor has long been an important tool of the foreign policy of modern states. The activities of foreign policy institutions dealing with its direct humanitarian component, their functions performed within a certain competence - all this is an integral part of international humanitarian cooperation. The Republic of Türkiye also pays great attention to the development of this part of its foreign policy. Using the methods of institutional and functional analysis, the article analyzed one of the successful instruments of the foreign humanitarian policy of the Republic of Türkiye, the Turkish educational foundation Maarif, founded in 2016 with the aim of developing education outside Türkiye. A fairly new, but rapidly gaining weight instrument of Ankara's foreign humanitarian policy is a response to Gulen's educational institutions. De facto, the main focus of Maarif is lobbying for the closure or reassignment of schools associated with the Gulen movement around the world. But using the example of Central Asian countries, it is clear that the appearance of schools and educational complexes of Maarif in a particular country does not necessarily lead to the closure of Gulen institutions. The methods we noted were supplemented by the method of content analysis in assessing the dynamics of Ankara's humanitarian cooperation with the countries of the region. So, much attention is paid to exact sciences, technical specialties such as robotics, astronautics, etc. Despite its rapid growth, it is still difficult for the Maarif Foundation to gain a foothold in some countries. This article analyzes these reasons and examines the results already achieved by the foundation's educational institutions.

Research Objective is to identify emerging destabilization risks generated by the evolution of terrorist activities and analyze their impact on the transformation of contemporary international relations. The methodology combines structural-functional and comparative analysis applied to 12 UN Security Council resolutions (2020-2023) and 15 national security strategies of key states, including the USA, China, and EU countries. The empirical foundation is supplemented by data from the Global Terrorism Index 2024, covering 27,000 incidents, which enabled the identification of correlations between technological adaptation of terrorist groups and their operational effectiveness. The research results systematize three dominant trends. First, the hybridization of threats manifests in the integration of digital tools: 40 % of attacks in 2024 contained elements of cyber impact, while 78 % of Al-Qaeda transactions were conducted through anonymous crypto platforms. Second, the regionalization of risks demonstrates the connection between environmental crises and radicalization: in the Sahel, where terrorism-related mortality increased by 68 %, 58 % of UN resolutions mention climate migrations as a recruitment catalyst. Third, the institutionalization of extremism is confirmed by examples of ISIS controlling territories with a population of 11 million people and Al-Shabaab implementing tax systems in Somalia. The author reconsiders terrorism's role as a systemic actor whose influence extends to economic, technological, and sociocultural aspects of global security. In the article is proposed an adaptive regulation model that combines predictive technologies (such as graph neural networks for blockchain transaction analysis) with localized solutions for highly vulnerable regions. The research emphasizes the need to overcome conceptual contradictions in international documents, where discrepancies between legal and ideological interpretations of terrorism remain a key barrier to effective cooperation.

The North Crimean Canal, like several other major construction projects for the national economy of the USSR, was classified as the "Great Construction Projects of Communism" and became the largest construction project of the post-war Crimean five-year plans. A few historians associate the North Crimean Canal with one of the reasons for the decision to transfer Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR. The article examines the construction of the North Crimean Canal for irrigation of the northern regions of Crimea. The water resources of Crimea are analyzed: the state of reserves, water supply and sanitation, purification technologies, etc. One of the main problems of the North Crimean Canal is the full and comprehensive use of water resources. Agriculture has become one of the most important areas in the development of the Crimean economy, and its main task is to most fully satisfy the needs of Crimean guests in agricultural products. In the steppe Crimea, with the arrival of Dnieper water, the areas under irrigated crops expanded annually. The main task was to increase the yield of agricultural crops. The construction of the canal solved many hydraulic engineering problems.

The purpose of this article is to assess on the basis of a retrospective analysis of the organization of air defense of one of the important administrative centers of the country (the city of Tsaritsyn) during the Civil War and military intervention in Russia. To date, this topic remains poorly studied in Russian historiography related to the problems of internal military conflicts with international participation. The information content of the article is based on previously published literature (works, magazine and newspaper articles) and the documentary base presented by the funds of the Russian State Military Archive. The research methodology includes a number of scientific theories (military and historical), scientific principles, general scientific and special scientific methods. In his work, the author primarily relied on the theories of armed struggle and the historical process, the principles of historical knowledge: historicism, objectivity, integrity, concreteness and interdisciplinarity. To obtain scientific results, the main methods widely used in the study of events and phenomena in history (genetic, ideographic, problem-chronological, retrospective, systemic, synchronous, diachronic analysis, etc.) were used. In the aggregate, these scientific methods, in their approaches, correspond to the content of the above-mentioned scientific theories. This article reveals only one of the aspects of the general system of protection of administrative centers, industrial regions of the state, groupings of troops (naval forces) from enemy air attack in wartime. This system began to form in our country during the First World War (1914-1918) and continued during the Civil War in Russia. The organization of the air defense of Tsaritsyn during 1918-1919 became a prelude to more global events related to the Battle of Stalingrad during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). On the banks of the Volga River, the Soviet Air Force and Air Defense Forces in bloody battles practically destroyed the main flower of the military aviation of Nazi Germany.

The formation of the US-Mexico border can be described as a controversial and complex process for both the United States and Mexico. Before Mexico gained independence, the United States bordered the Spanish Empire at that time, which, in turn, was not interested in its northern territories of Mexican lands due to climatic features. The lack of proper involvement on the part of Spain in the development of this colony led to the influx of another, more active actor, namely, the United States. This study examines the origins of U.S.-Mexican relations. According to the article, key events were studied by using the historical method, the method of analysis, namely content analysis and event analysis, as well as working with documents. To understand the current political context in the relations between the two states, a broad legal framework is analysed (using the example of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, as well as the Transcontinental Treaty). Based on the results of the study, key features were analysed - such as Mexico's independence, the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the annexation of Florida and Texas - which influenced the formation of the US-Mexican border. Thus, the initially private colonization process of the settlement of the northern Mexican territories gradually developed into expansion by the United States. At the same time, there were many opponents of this policy in government circles, which subsequently resulted in a military clash within the United States itself. Historical facts in the context of modern discussions related to immigration policy and security continue to influence foreign policy decisions.

In the current conflict in Ukraine, national and ethnic characteristics have played and continue to play a significant role in shaping the political and social situation. The article, considering the historical context and current events, describes the problem of changes in the national identity of Ukrainians, caused by an attempt to build a mono-ethnic society. The purpose of this article is to consider, based on a sociological analysis, the manifestations of national characteristics of Ukrainians in the context of mono- and polyethnicity. Among the research methods used, one can note a comparative analysis. By means of a comparative analysis, the differences between Ukrainians living in Ukraine and those who remained in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union were considered. The empirical basis of the study was a secondary analysis of data obtained by the survey method and traditional document analysis. In the article, the author concludes that in a heterogeneous ethnic environment, the ambiguous national characteristics of Ukrainians are smoothed out, softened, integrated into the general polyethnic composition, including through intercultural diffusion. While the mono-ethnic social environment, formed by the full force of the state nationalist ideology, transforms the national characteristics inherent in the Ukrainian people, exaggerates them, worsens them, ultimately turning them into a destructive force threatening the peaceful development of Ukrainian society. All this hinders the development of the Ukrainian sub-ethnos. The final thesis of the work emphasizes the importance of eliminating the negative consequences of Ukrainian nationalist policy by restoring polyethnicity. Polyethnic living conditions have been tested by time, have shown their long-term effectiveness and to the maximum extent provide an opportunity for the Ukrainian people to constructively exist and develop.

The article discusses the results of an empirical study of adolescents conducted by the author using a database provided by all-Russian children's organizations. The method of online survey (Google Forms) was used. The sample is focused spontaneous. The sample size is 183 respondents. The age of respondents is from 12 to 18 years old. The results are presented using the methods of descriptive statistics and multivariate data analysis. The concept of socialization norm was applied as a methodological basis of the study. Premature socialization is considered as early acquisition of social functions of an adult by children and adolescents and is qualified as a socialization deviation, which is not always interpreted as a deviation. The specifics of sociological studies of adolescents are discussed, and a number of limitations of using the questionnaire survey as a tool in the study of this age group are revealed. The opinion of adolescents about the accessibility of the questionnaire wording during the survey of high school students by the method of focus-group interview is shown, according to the results of which a number of questions were reformulated and some were excluded from the questionnaire. The analysis of teenagers' attitudes to various manifestations of premature socialization is presented: teenage girls' pregnancy, early sexual relations, marriage before school graduation, smoking, alcohol consumption, earning their own money, piercing and tattoos, etc. The analysis of teenagers' attitudes to various manifestations of premature socialization is presented. The respondents' opinion on the causes of minor offenses of adolescents, use of tobacco and alcohol products by adolescents, pregnancy of adolescent girls was revealed. The author draws the following conclusions: the attitude of adolescents to negative manifestations of premature socialization is characterized by the prevalence of neutral-negative assessments. In the choice of adolescents' attitudes towards some socially disapproved manifestations of premature socialization, which are not subject to pronounced stigmatization in society, neutral and even positive assessments prevail. Among the main reasons for the manifestations of premature socialization, adolescents highlight: personal characteristics, the desire to experience thrills and the situation in the family.