Abstract: The subject of this article is the interpretation of such a social phenomenon as conflict in the framework of the studies of the French philosopher of the XX century Georges Bataille. The purpose of the work is to examine the ideas of an author not previously used in conflictology, who has studied topics relevant to conflictology by the type of violence or prohibition, and to identify the relevance of these ideas for modern conflictology. The article considered the concepts of immanence and the system of energy expenditure developed by the thinker, as well as their connection with the process of conflict. Considerable attention was paid to the consideration of the ways of spending indicated by Batai. As an example of conflicts, the conflict for a place to watch bullfighting, described by the philosopher, and the enmity between the Montague and Capulet families from William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" were chosen for consideration, the features of which intersect with the ideas of Georges Bataille. The most important conclusion of the article is that for the thinker, conflict is rather a specific state than a confrontation. The relevance of this conclusion is due to the fact that such an interpretation of the conflict allows us to take a fresh look at the course of this phenomenon, since within the framework of the concept of Bataille, the role of contradictions in the conflict in the study becomes smaller compared to the internal experience of the parties. Such an approach to the consideration of the conflict will allow us to study in more detail other aspects of various situations that have not received significant attention in the framework of the consideration of conflicts before. As an example, we can mention the enmity between families from the tragedy of William Shakespeare, whose consideration through the interpretation of the conflict by Georges Bataille revealed that the end of the conflict may be associated with the reorganization of the process of wasting energy.

Keywords: Romeo and Juliet, death, controversy, prohibition, psychoanalysis, waste of energy, internal experience, immanence, Bataille, conflict

Abstract: In modern conditions the range of use of intelligence in politics is expanding. Today, experts single out intelligence operations as a separate kind of informational confrontation, on a par with the cybernetic and psychological struggle. In international conflicts, the goals are more and more often achieved not through direct military influence, but using alternative forms: sabotage, economic, diplomatic, etc. One of the widespread areas of secret services’ activity appears to be the interference into the development of the political systems of sovereign states. Thus, nowadays on a par with military interventions there are economic, diplomatic, ideological, intelligence, etc. interventions. This circumstance significantly complicates both the detection of foreign interventions and realization of countermeasures. It is especially difficult to solve these tasks in a situation of reconnaissance/intelligence intervention carried out by the secret services, whose activities are, as a rule, autonomous and entirely based on the use of unofficial methods and techniques, quite often associated with violation of the law. Moreover, as far as the choice of a interventional course by the government mostly depends on the information on the development of the situation provided by various departments, a misestimation is possible due to high level of bias in the work of intelligence-analytical services. In this perspective, studying the experience of past interventions largely reveals the most dangerous for the state forms of external interference. Account of this experience is a necessary condition for the formation of ability of society to resist disorganization and the crisis of statehood.

Keywords: McNamara’s law, opportunistic behavior, political decision-making, agency, intervention, intelligence, secret services, Civil war, small wars, conflict

Abstract: The subject of the study is the current role, approaches and activities of the U.S. and China in the UN system in the period 2017-2022. To conduct the study, authors used an applied analysis of the positions of China and the United States in the UN Specialized Agencies, the budgetary allocations of states to the organization, as well as the reactions of the United States and China and their allies to issues related to human rights and democracy in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The main conclusions of the study, which authors come to, are that the strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China will continue to intensify during the Biden administration. The Biden administration's approach to competition and cooperation with China will also be characterized by the U.S. national interest. After the COVID-19 pandemic, new debates and conflicts over values, systems and ideologies emerged, changing the strategic competition between the United States and China from "US vs. China" to "free camp countries vs. China," which is more favorable to the US. J. Biden, a Democrat with a great career in Congress will move the debate about "values," "system," and the "ideology" of human rights and democracy to new areas of competition in the strategic competition between the U.S. and China.

Keywords: Taiwan, human rights, funding, Specialized Agencies, United Nations, China, United States, competition, Hong Kong, applied analysis

Abstract: The author examines the publications of Western authors on the subject of hybrid warfare from 2014 to 2022, inclusive. The purpose of the study is to analyze the views of Western political and military experts that hybrid warfare is a development of Russian military thought, as one of the mechanisms to promote the anti-Russian agenda. The subject of the study is the publications of Western researchers on the topics of information and hybrid warfare from 2014 to 2022. The object of the study is a Russophobic narrative created around the phenomenon of hybrid warfare by Western political and military experts. The Russophobic narrative means a constructed sequence of images and ideas of an anti-Russian orientation, clothed in the form of a scientific narrative. Due to the huge array of publications for the period from 2014 to 2022, the work analyzed studies reflecting the main specifics of the views of Western authors on the subject under consideration. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that Western researchers began to attribute hybrid warfare to the development of Russian military theorists in 2014, which falls on a new round of active confrontation between Russia and the United States and the beginning of an active anti-Russian campaign in the West. Hybrid warfare has become a journalistic cliche today, which experts and journalists use to describe any actions that do not fit within the framework of traditional ideas about the principles of conventional warfare. Based on initially false and unsubstantiated theses, Western authors accuse Russia of waging a "barbaric war" on the territory of Ukraine in the period from 2014 to 2022. This study revealed that all the tools and elements of hybrid warfare described by Western experts have been successfully used by the United States and the NATO bloc in the course of modern military conflicts. Thus, the humanitarian sphere in the West has turned into another element of propaganda.

Keywords: western studies, international humanitarian law, special military operation, war crimes, unrestricted warfare, russiaphobia, propaganda, cyber-attacks, infromation warfare, hybrid warfare

Abstract: The article examines the publications of the Boston Pilot for the period from 1849 to 1856, devoted to the Eastern question and the Crimean War. The purpose of the study is to analyze the views of Catholic Americans on the events of the mid-19th century, as a result of America's information policy to counter British expansionism in the 19th century. The subject of the study are the issues of the Boston Pilot magazine, which feature articles on the Eastern question and the Crimean War. The lower chronological frame is due to the fact that the events of 1849 ("Spring of the Peoples") served as a prologue to the crisis in the East. The object of the study is the information policy of America, aimed at forming a narrative about the Eastern question and the Crimean War among the American Catholic population, following the American foreign policy course of the XIX century.   According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the newspaper's publications can be divided into two periods according to their tonality. The first one, from 1849 to 1853, follows the pan-European discourse and contains statements and provisions with an anti-Russian orientation. The subsequent escalation of the conflict with the inclusion of Great Britain and France in the conflict leads to a transformation of the views of the authors of the Boston Pilot on the events taking place. The publication begins to position the conflict as a tool to weaken the British Empire, urging readers to refrain from direct participation. In this interpretation, Russia appears as a lesser evil necessary for the fight against Britain. The attitude of the Catholic population of the United States to the events of the middle should be positioned as anti-British. The assessment of sentiments as pro-Russian is erroneous and creates a misconception not only about American society of the period under review, but also about US foreign policy in the XIX century.

Keywords: Irish, Russiaphobia, Image of Russia, American policy, Eastern question, Crimena war, Propaganda, Information warfare, American catholics, American media