Conceptualization of Chinas Foreign Policy: A Product of Ambition or Circumstances?

Amid the escalating disagreements in US-China relations, which became the main theme of the global foreign policy agenda in 2010s, the contours of the new policy of Chinese Foreign Ministry have been showing more and more clearly. Traditionally, the narrative of Western analysts has described this policy as a well-thought-out scheme designed by Beijing to take over the global leadership, linked directly to the figure of the Communist Party of China Chairman, Xi Jinping. The purpose of this article is to examine the origins and milestones of the current Chinese foreign policy doctrine. Having analyzed them, the author came to the conclusion that the PRC’s behaviour in international politics is largely reactive. During the Republican administrations in the U.S. it was China that was the main advocate of the idea of «global peace» and was forced to undertake fundamentally new international commitments.

Life of Russian Orthodox Clergy in the United States at the End of the 19th Century (Reflected in the correspondence of the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev)

Using little-known correspondence of the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev with the bishop Nickolay (Ziorov) — head of Russian Orthodox Church in the United States in 1892–1898 — the article explores the everyday life of Russian clergy in America. This correspondence is deposited at the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg and has not been published or studied before. The author analyzes Pobedonostsev’s role in the diocese affairs. This examination is new both in the Church’s history and recently published literature on Pobedonostsev. Yet the Ober-Procurator’s supervision was of utmost importance for the Russian mission in the United States, faced with the crucial challenge of adapting itself to the alien cultural environment. Pobedonostsev was well informed about the situation with the Russian mission, helped to solve many personnel, financial and organizational problems, was a chief promoter of its interests before the Russian imperial government — Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Finance, the State Council, and the Tzar’s court. Pobedonostsev also stayed in touch with the US diplomatic mission in Russia and Russian diplomats in the United States. He was very close with bishop Nickolay who regarded the Ober-Procurator as his main benefactor and constantly turned to him for advice and assistance. Pobedonostsev strongly supported the bishop’s reforms of missionary activities in education, parish life, and propagation of Orthodoxy, as well as his efforts to defend the Russian Orthodox mission’s interests before American authorities. No wonder their extensive correspondence richly reflected the diocese’s life with all its problems and needs. The article highlights their close cooperation in recruiting qualified clergymen for American service, which was the key task for the mission that suffered from a shortage of reliable professional personnel. Pobedonostsev-Nickolay cooperation greatly contributed to the diocese progress, which later reached its peak under Nickolay’s successor bishop Tikhon (Bellavin). Their correspondence sheds new light on the personalities of both men united by their fervent devotion to the Orthodox Church and highly conservative views. It also presents a revealing case study of the interaction between Russian ecclesiastic and state authorities as well as their perception of American culture. The author’s main methodological approach consisted in text analysis of the archival documents juxtaposed against the context of Russian-American relations and the realities of American life.

How Do Chinese Media Frame Arab Uprisings: A Content Analysis

Employing content analysis, this study compares the coverage of the Arab uprisings by the <em>People’s Daily</em> (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China) and <em>Caixin Net</em> (a typical commercial media) with statements from the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the last decade. It shows that the overall attention given to Arab uprisings in the <em>People’s Daily</em> and <em>Caixin Net</em> declined during the period, but there were shifts in the framing of the conflicts, presentation of issues, and positions. The article demonstrates and analyses how the approach and outline of the conflicts in the <em>People’s Daily</em> changed from disaster to criticism, and then to comparison—its position towards the events generally negative—and how <em>Caixin Net</em> moved from a disaster to a contextual framing of the events, its position tending to be neutral.

The Role of the Cyprus Issue in the Greek-Soviet Relations (1956-1960)

The article examines the role of the Cyprus issue in the bilateral relations between Greece and the USSR in 1956-1960. It is based on primal archival research realised at the Constantine Karamanlis Archive (AKK) and at the Diplomatic and Historical Archive of the Greek Foreign Ministry (DIAYE) in Athens. The analysis of the recently declassified documents relate to the events which took place in 1954, when the Soviet Union supported the Greek claims for self-determination of the Cypriot people in the United Nations on the basis of the anti-colonial principles. This contributed to the impressive increase in trade between Greece and the USSR, especially after the unofficial visit of the Soviet Foreign Minister D.T. Shepilov to Athens in 1956. Against the backdrop of the deterioration of the international situation in 1957, Kremlin heavily criticized NATOs decision to deploy the US Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) in Europe and applied diplomatic pressures to NATO member-states including Greece. The shift from tensions to a peaceful offensive strategy, characteristic of the Soviet diplomacy towards Greece, proved to be a double-edged sword for Moscow in the long term. The author concludes that both countries exploited the Cyprus issue for their benefit. Thus, Moscow managed to take advantage of the Greek discontent with the NATO allies as a means of increasing its own prestige in the region, while the Greek governments capitalized on the Soviet tactics in order to increase its political leverage in confronting NATO on Cyprus.

In Search of Stability: Ben Bella’s Algeria Seen from the Italian Point of View

Based on unpublished documents from the recently declassified archives of the Italian Foreign Ministry, this article aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the facts that transpired during the presidency of Ahmed Ben Bella (1962–1965) in Algeria, from the Italian point of view. From the story and the point of view of Italian diplomatic representations in North Africa, three critical moments for the young independent state in the 3 years following the ceasefire of 19 March 1962 are analysed: the crisis of the summer of 1962, the Sands War of October 1963 and the coup d’état of Boumedienne of 19 June 1965. This article argues that Italian diplomats in Algeria were all intent on their mission, seeking with their analyses to understand when a certain stability in the country could be glimpsed, such as to allow the government of Rome to launch important investments and lasting technical and commercial collaboration agreements.

Captain Cherkassky’s doubts: Plans and reality of the Khiva campaign of 1717

The report is devoted to the plans of Peter I to subdue the Khanate of Khiva, the preparation of the campaign of Captain Alexander Cherkassky to Khiva in 1717, and the clarification of the circumstances of the failure that befell this large-scale enterprise. New documents from the RGADA and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire of the Russian Foreign Ministry are used.

Cooperation of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR in the UN during the Perestroika Period

The article examines the main directions of activity and forms of interaction between the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR in the UN and its specialized institutions during the years of perestroika (1985 - 1991). To disclose the topic, materials from the journal “International Affair” were used (reviews of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the foreign policy of the USSR, articles by the foreign ministers of the Union republics, primarily Ukraine and Belarus), book and journal publications of Union / Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian scientists, documents of the United Nations and foreign policy of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR. The author’s conscious emphasis on the union level reflects the real situation in relations between the Union Center and the republics in the Soviet federation during the perestroika period, when these relations rapidly evolved from the foreign policy dictate of the Center to greater autonomy of the republics in the international arena, which ultimately has led to the collapse of the USSR and the proclamation of independence all union republics. The article analyzes such issues as the new approach of the Soviet Union to the UN in the years of perestroika, the formation of new relations between the Union republics and the Center, diplomatic cooperation of Soviet delegations and representatives of socialist countries in the UN, Belarusian initiatives at the 45th session of the UN General Assembly (1990). During the years of perestroika, the Soviet leadership and the union Foreign Ministry did a tremendous job of clearing the rubble of the Cold War, developing broad international cooperation and integration the USSR into the world economy. The Belarusian and Ukrainian diplomatic services have made a significant contribution to this activity within the framework of the UN and its specialized agencies and have received much broader opportunities for realizing the national interests and needs of their peoples within the framework of radically renewed relations between the Union Center and the republics. The article is one of the first attempts in post-Soviet historiography to investigate the activities of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR in the UN and its specialized institutions during the period of perestroika

LEXICAL AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF TRANSLATION OF DIPLOMATIC TEXTS (BASED ON THE TEXTS OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF RUSSIA WEBSITE INTHEPERIODOF 2018-2019)

В настоящей статье исследуются лексико-стилистические особенности дипломатических текстов путем сравнения текстов оригинала и перевода с применением сопоставительного анализа для выявления наиболее успешной стратегии перевода.Статья представляет выводы по результатам анализа 590 единиц, взятых из выступлений, пресс-конференций и интервью Министра иностранных дел Российской Федерации С. В. Лаврова и его представителей, а также брифингов и комментариев официального представителя МИДа России М. В. Захаровой. Предметом настоящего исследования выступают лексико-стилистические особенности перевода дипломатического текста. Целью исследования является выявление и анализ лексико-стилистических особенностей дипломатического текста в аспекте перевода. Для достижения поставленной цели исследования авторами были использованы следующие методы: сравнительно-сопоставительный и аналитический. В результате исследования было установлено, что при передаче лексических особенностей дипломатического текста переводчики наиболее часто используют такие приемы, как калькирование и смысловое развитие. При переводе стилистических особенностей используются такие приемы, как калькирование, эквивалентный перевод, деметафоризация и функциональная замена. This article examines the lexical and stylistic features of diplomatic texts by comparing the original and translated texts with the use of comparative analysis to identify the most successful translation strategies. The article presents the results of the analysis of 590 items from the speeches, press conferences and interviews of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and his representatives, as well as the briefings and comments of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. The subject of this study is the lexical and stylistic features of the translation of diplomatic texts. The goal of the study is to identify and analyze the lexical and stylistic features of the diplomatic text in the aspect of translation. To achieve the goal of the study, the authors used the following methods: comparative and analytical methods. As a result of the study, it was found that when translating the lexical features of the diplomatic text, translators most often use such techniques as calquing and semantic development. When translating stylistic features, translators use such techniques as calquing, equivalent translation, demetaphorization, and functional substitution.

Uruguay trade deals will be key to boost recovery

Significance The move is part of a trade offensive by President Luis Lacalle Pou, who has instructed the foreign ministry to explore possible FTAs with other countries as well. In a region marked by political conflicts and instability, Uruguay is also seeking to position itself as a model country for investors despite its small domestic market. Impacts Feasibility studies for the possible FTA with China will be done by the end of this year. Planned extra-Mercosur trade talks will clash with Mercosur norms and Argentina’s rejection of extra-bloc trade talks. The outcome of a possible referendum on the government’s key reform package is not yet clear.