The articles provides a brief analysis of the trends reflected in a new US defence strategic guidance which implies to define priorities of the US military policy and strategy under curtailing of the military expenditures and covering both geopolitical and military aspects of the defence policy. Among the priorities listed in the document a necessity of preserving of the dominance of the US in “global space” and geopolitical reorientation towards the Asian-Pacific region are mentioned. This reorientation should be carried out without affecting the interests of the US and its allies, and first of all of Israel, in the Middle East. There are also changes provided for Europe where the US is going to cut its military presence.
The document provides a list of priority tasks which should formalize the United Forces. The changes offered imply large-scale changes in the structure of the US armed forces and new expenditures. A basic transformation of Europe’s and NATO’s security system also provides for heavy expenses which seem to be hardly probable amid the financial crisis.
The analysis of the geopolitical and military-strategic aspects of the document proves that the problems of the US national security are rooted in the political sphere. The military circles, being aware that curtailing military expenditure and reduction of the armed forces are inevitable, try to make them less painful. But the essence of the issue in this case is political. The text and the measures offered are not the most problematic parts of the document. Most of the problems may be caused by the initiation of the implementation of the of document’s provisions – political decision which will be taken after the presidential elections.

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This article reveals the most common theoretical and practical frames and parameters of power politics mechanism in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Deterrence and constraint have been used on practice in regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for two decades, while the attempts of theoretical analysis and study of this phenomenon have been initiated quite recently. The subject demands more theoretical disclosure which would provide more efficient elaboration of practical recommendations.
But even now, on the assumption of available groundwork, an entire circle of practical questions, which can be used in regard to the situation in Karabakh conflict, is outlined and this is just another argument that the power politics factor is an important and topical subject for the theoretical study and practical analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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Granting Nagorno-Karabakh the “highest possible level of autonomy” within the Azerbaijani Republic by the Azerbaijani party is per se a propagandistic step. Granting autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh is often presented by the Azerbaijani side for domestic and foreign audiences in the light of “reintegration” of a breakaway territory. In reality Azerbaijan is not even ready for such, in its opinion, optimal resolution of the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh status and this unreadiness is conditioned by domestic political and legal realities of the Azerbaijani Republic. Advocating the autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh as its vision of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, Azerbaijani leadership pursues its aims – to fill the settlement process with imitation activity and at the same time to increase its offensive military potential for the “final resolution” of Karabakh issue. The latter implies physical displacement of the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the milestones of this process is “self-determination of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh” within the Azerbaijani Republic.
Granting autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh, per se, demonstrates unavailability of the current Azerbaijani leadership for a long-term settlement and proves its mood for a military solution of the conflict.

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To carry out the main orientations of foreign political strategy and to provide an absolute geopolitical presence in the regions important from strategic point of view, Turkey has to establish a transport infrastructure and with this purpose Kars-Akhlkalaku-Tbilisi-Baku (KATB) project has been promoted. Promotion of the regional KATB project will help Turkey and Azerbaijan to become a transition and transport hub on the entire Eurasian space, thus gaining an opportunity to connect Europe and Asia. Obtaining such a geopolitical leverage will provide Turkey an opportunity not only to carry out the regional policy of its own but also to become an indispensable element of global policy. It should be mentioned that there is no unambiguous opinion about the KATB in Georgia. Tbilisi speaks about strategic significance of this railway construction, as it would provide Georgia with an important transport exit to Europe through the territory of Turkey, meanwhile the Georgian experts believe that Georgia may face a challenge of turning into a pseudo-transition state.
Thus, in case of its realization the KATB railway project will become for Turkey and Azerbaijan a new possibility to consolidate their political and economic stances not only in the region but also on the whole Eurasian space; meanwhile in regard to Georgia it will once more come to prove how a “subject” of the international politics is turning into an object.

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Dynamics and volume of Russian – Armenian cultural and humanitarian cooperation have significantly increased since the beginning of the 21st century. Among the key factors that contributed to the expanded agenda of intercultural dialogue in several dimensions of social and humanitarian relations between the two states were: positive trends in economic partnership development that led to larger engagement of entrepreneurial segments of the both societies into the trade and industrial cooperation, widened clout of information technologies and access mechanism in societal development processes in facilitating and speeding up humanitarian interaction capacities as well as focused and purposeful efforts on the side of Russian government to attach a greater level of institutionalization to educational-cultural and Diaspora policies across the CIS regions.

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Such an urgent problem of modern Kazakhstan as islamization of society as a trend is considered in the article. In globalization, modern Islam as a confessional network is characterized by openness, possibility of free expansion, high adaptability to changing conditions, and (unlike most other religions) the lack of hardcentric hierarchies and complex decision-making, having a pretty good prospects of development in an era of globalization.

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Intensification of Chaos in political and economic life of most of the developed and developing countries, burdened with the aggravation of ecological problems, is a main characteristic feature of the current stage of the development of humanity. There are two levels of explanation of this phenomenon formed in the world expert community. One of them can be called political-economic. The adherents of the other level – ideological – stick to the thesis that intensification of Chaos is caused by the exhaustion of the ideological grounds of the western society, i.e. liberalism.
This work claims to represent briefly both levels on the basis of the ideas expressed by their most vivid representatives.

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Definitions and interpretations of “publicity of power” existing in the modern political vocabulary constitute its form and essential semantics only partially – in some surface or situational characteristics. Propositions deduced from these definitions (that is - publicity is an exclusive indication of democratic power and presence of power in mass media constitutes publicity) can be considered true either with considerable reserves or in case multiple situational contexts match.
According to the author of the article, “publicity of power” term should be defined as a set of the actions which are realized by the power within the following two processes:
1. permanent information process of disseminating the codes of management, that is – the process of disseminating general orders. This set is necessary for the state to manage speech acts of the power which should be realized openly, in public, to reach the goal set;
2. process of ritual or ceremonial acts which aim to create and corroborate the existence/legitimacy of power.

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