Vol. 10 No. 3 (30) (2019)

The article discusses particular features of current developments for Armenia and Russia and the emergence of new challenges in this context. After the Armenian Velvet Revolution, there were no principal changes in Armenia-Russia bilateral relations, however, there was a lack of understanding in regards to some issues. This article examines the objective and subjective reasons for misunderstandings between Armenia and Russia. Currently, Armenia assumes the chairmanship in the CSTO and EAEU and continues to be Russia’s reliableally in both bilateral and international arenas. Armenian new political leadership highlights within their foreign policy that emerging challenges can be resolved by combining interests and developing relations with their strategic allies.

The article deals with those actions and measures which were taken by Russia during the August War in 2008 and afterward. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the position of Turkey towards the above-mentioned events, which significantly affected the Russian-Turkish relations and their further development, deepening the level of the strategic partnership between the parties.

With the development of the Internet and communication technologies, the world has acquired an important communication tool in the face
of social media, which is increasingly used in political context too. The tendency of the mass usage of social media from the political perspective is a growing one in Armenia as more and more people, especially young people, are engaged in online communication via Facebook due to the effectiveness and easy implementation. This has generated a huge need to conduct social media analyses by collecting, monitoring, and summarizing the activities of young people, online news portals, and political figures on Facebook to uncover the possible influences of social media on the process of creating a political attitude. The article discusses the negative and positive influences of social media on political behavior and political participation of young people in Armenia

To achieve their foreign policy goals, most of the modern states widely use the policy of “soft power”, the main component of which is to justify the attractiveness of the subject of politics, its culture, and lifestyle. This makes it possible to form a qualitatively new culture that changes people's consciousness and behavior, and, as a result, makes a big influence on foreign policy orientation of states. For the implementation of the “soft power” policy, there are a large number of tools with the proper use of which the state can successfully solve its problems in foreign policy. This is especially actual for small states, the abilities of which are severely limited. The changed conditions in the world political process have left their mark on the content of the “soft power” policy, which is more and more often combined with “hard power”. In this regard, the concept of “smart power” is becoming very actual, the use of which can significantly expand the range of the “soft power” tools

The struggle for influence zones in the post-Soviet space, the Ukrainian and Syrian crises, differences in approaches to global political processes, and the fight against international terrorism have led to a new confrontation between Russia and the West. Western and Russian analytical centers speak of a new Cold War comparing the present situation with a post-war long military, economic and ideological confrontation. Such comparisons have led to rather an interesting discourse, giving rise to the alreadycirculated “new Cold War” concept.

One of the main directions of political science research is the political regimes, which reflect the way the political system functions, methods of ruling, degree of political freedom and openness of the country. The peculiar features of a totalitarian power or a totalitarian regime are: the actual elimination of constitutional rights and freedoms, the full submission of public life to the interests of the authorities and the establishment of totalitarian control over society, the widespread use of political opposition and violent actions against dissidents, the absence of ideological pluralism of civil society, etc.
The article discusses various kinds of questions about the origin and uses, development and interpretation of the concept "totalitarianism". The manifestations of the ideological roots of totalitarianism in various periods, dating back to the political teachings of the Ancient World, are presented. In particular, the events of the 20th century and related comments are discussed, since it was during this period that totalitarianism became a political reality with its full-fledged manifestation. Turning to the problem of the characteristics of totalitarian power, the author presents a point of view, according to which each totalitarian power needs differentiation.

The article discusses conceptual approaches to the definition of public administration, which provides a theoretical basis for the modernization and development of government. Being complex and comprehensive knowledge, as well as an established system of practice, public administration includes the study of various levels of governance: state, local, private and public. The article analyzes the processes of modernization of public administration and historical measurements of the formation of New public administration.