The review describes the subject of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program and how the network of Russian biosphere reserves was developed. The MAB Program is designed to coordinate the efforts of scientists from many countries who conduct fundamental research in order to reduce anthropogenic impact and the gap between consumption and conservation. Tendencies of population growth and migration, growing demands for energy and natural resources, globalization of the economy, centralization of management, the difficulty of access to necessary information — all these factors have a direct or indirect impact on the environment, and hence on the prospects for human survival and development. According to UNESCO official documents biosphere reserves are protected zones of a representative terrestrial and coastal environment that have gained international recognition because of their importance for nature protection, scientific knowledge and skills, and the preservation of human values for sustainable development. To date, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves includes 686 such protected areas in 122 countries, including 20 transboundary ones.

The recent decades have witnessed sweeping changes in the modern global policy and international relations: some countries reinforce their geopolitical positions and economic capacity, while others lose their leading role. However, all states are united in their endeavor to use new mechanisms in asserting their foreign policy issues or make use of the tools that have been developed by some countries through centuries.

One of the popular tools to ensure security of the state borders which have been on great demand in the last several decades is building of protective structures on the borders between countries. And about 50 countries have already obtained certain experience in this area applying high technologies and most advanced engineering solutions in implementation of such projects. Such changed approaches to pursuance of foreign policy objectives may be associated with diffusion movement of people caused by military, political and ethnoreligious conflicts, food shortage, climate changes, growing terrorism, crime, corruption, etc.

The driving motive here was and still remains the protection of national security and economic interests, curbing the illegal migration, supply of arms and drugs, transboundary terrorism. Construction of protective walls, barriers and fences reflects the level of political relationships among the countries and the level of their economic capabilities with the help of which the states are seeking to stop completely, to revise or drastically restrict bilateral relations.

It is not an easy task to assess efficiency of the constructed walls and barriers, and the more so in the face of complex issues existing in bilateral relations. The experience of some countries in implementation of major protection-and-defense projects has shown that they succeed in decreasing the illegal migrant flow, penetration of terrorists, arresting the arms and drugs circulation. However, in general, these efforts within the frame of bilateral relations are a hindrance to development of cooperation between the states reflecting at the same time their inability to settle the arising contradictions on the basis of the international law.

The land reform affected all the countries of the post-Soviet space and in the number of cases led to land degradation, as indicated in scientific literature and in the state reports. The paper presents the results of applying the modern international methodology for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) assessment for the Russian Federation. The tools of this methodology makes it possible to trace, on a retrospective basis, the dynamics of land degradation using following proxy indicators: land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon stocks. The relevant data for 2000-2015 are provided in the paper. It is shown that, despite the convenience and relative simplicity of the international methodology, as well as the possibility for comparative analysis of the state of land for the entire territory of the country according to a unified methodology, nevertheless it can not be used as alternative methods through direct substitutions of the global LDN indicators to national counterparts. The main reasons for the contradictions revealed are the variety of socio-economic and socio-economic conditions, as well as the existing multi-level state system for land monitoring and assessment, which is traditional and conservative. To harmonizing national and global data it is proposed to enhance the national land monitoring system with global indicators for using them in the national land assessment system to monitor and verify the accuracy of statistical data obtained by traditional methods. In this case, global LDN indicators can be used in state and sectoral statistics to analyze general trends and stimulate the LDN targeting at the national and local level. The method for LDN calculation allows comparing poorly compared land categories by degradation indicators, although it will require substantial refinement for use in the Russian Federation.

Trade wars initiated by the United States worsen the global economic prospects and form an unfavorable background for the development of countries, dependent on the world trade, including Kazakhstan. In this regard, there is a need to evaluate the potential for the influence of the world economy situation on the prospects for the development of the kazakhstani economy, which is being undertaken in this article.

To achieve this goal, the current policy of the US administration in the foreign trade sphere are considered, and assessing its impact on the world economy and prospects for its continuation as well. The impact of trade wars on the Kazakh economy is estimated in several directions - from the potential to reduce the country’s foreign trade to shocks that may be caused by the fall of world markets due to the escalation of the conflict of the world’s leading economies.

The main result is a quantitative evaluation of the negative impact potential of trade wars on Kazakhstan in key areas on the basis of a scenario approach, with three scenarios, from moderate to crisis. The most likely scenario is the moderate impact of trade wars on the economy of Kazakhstan, and the main directions of their negative impact are the worsening of the balance of payments due to the reduction in exports, the devaluation of the tenge and the growth of public debt and budget expenditures for interest payment.

The article is devoted to the analysis of trade and economic relations between two geographically close European states — Slovakia and Belarus. Special attention is paid to the state and dynamics of Slovak-Belarusian economic relations. Mutual foreign trade between states is considered in detail, including exports and imports. In addition, the author has identified priority structures for goods supplied to these countries.

The focus of attention is also focused on the key subjects of the bilateral Slovak-Belarusian economic cooperation, which by their active work make a certain contribution and have a direct impact on the strengthening and expansion of economic contacts between Slovakia and Belarus. The emphasis is also placed on topical and promising projects of Slovak-Belarusian economic cooperation implemented by both states in various fields and areas of interest to both parties. First of all, we are talking about industry, production and cooperation relations and modernization of production; agriculture; energy and waste management; standardization, metrology and conformity assessment; education, science and technology; medicine and pharmaceuticals; tourism.

The analysis was also made on the basis of important official documents, materials and resources of the central state authorities of Slovakia and Belarus, as well as quotes of high-ranking political figures of the two states.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of public diplomacy in Turkey’s foreign policy towards Georgia. Special attention is paid to the processes of conceptualization and institutionalization of Turkish public diplomacy. The author examines its goals and objectives. The attention is focuses on main institutions of Turkish public diplomacy, which implement cultural, humanitarian and educational projects in Georgia. The phenomenon of Turkish TV series are analyzed as one of the tools for creating an attractive image of the country in Georgian society. The level of effectiveness of Turkish public diplomacy towards Georgia is determined. In the context of this assessment, the image of Turkey is studied, as well as its ability to influence the political decisions of Georgia. General conclusions are made in regard to the Turkey foreign policy towards Georgia for the effectiveness of vector, its shortcomings are pointed out and further progress is noted.

The United Kingdom is set to officially leave the EU on 29 March 2019. However, London still doesn’t have a common strategy at the talks with Brussels, as well as a vision of an independent future of the country after the divorce. Amid this uncertainty, differences over the conditions of Brexit are currently on the rise both in the British society and the establishment. There is a significant increase in the number of people who are not satisfied with the Cabinet both in the opposition and among the Conservatives themselves, which undoubtedly threatens the governmental plan — Chequers. Die-hard eurosceptics, including former members of the Cabinet B. Johnson and D. Davis, urge not to make concessions to Brussels and to ensure autonomy of the UK in trade while maintaining the status quo on the Irish border. Those who are interested in business development support the idea of “soft Brexit” in order to keep getting benefits from access to the European free market. Moreover, some pro-European members of Parliament are still hoping to conduct another referendum. No progress is expected as a result of talks between the Secretary of State for exiting the EU Dominic Raab and his European counterpart Michel Barnier: Brussels continues to insist on creating a special economic zone in Northern Ireland without a hard border, which makes London fear possible alienation and another referendum. Regardless of the result of Brexit talks, internal political divisions will be increasing, jeopardizing Theresa May’s weak position as the Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservative Party. In an attempt to draw attention away from the negative consequences of Brexit in such a tense political situation, the British Prime Minister engages in multiple foreign-policy ventures, primarily anti-Russian rhetoric in the context of Syria, Ukraine and the Salisbury case. As a result, the UK has a destabilizing impact on world politics.

The basic vectors of diplomatic and church activity of Archbishop Tavricheskiy Guriy (Carpov) are examined in the article. Spite of the published works about activity of prominent hierarchy and missionary, study and comprehension the whole layer of the unexplored archived sources, kept in the funds of the Record office of Republic Crimea needs. The archived materials are contained by vast information about service of Archbishop in the Tavrida diocese, in particular, about his divine worship and build activity. Authors acquaint readers with some of these documents. Thus the special attention is spared correspondence of church figure, to related to the stay of him in Beijing, in the spiritual mission of Russia. The letters over brought in-process are addressed the spiritual father of Archbishop Guriy — Bishop of Saratov Jacob (Vecherkov). They contain unique information about history, culture, political situation in China of epoch of dynasty of Cin, about diplomatic relationships with the countries of the West and Russian empire. The authors of the article come to the conclusion, that letters of Archbishop Guriy, and also his theological works testify to the deep understanding of historical fates of Russia, conformities to law of historical development of our country, civilization prospect of the Russian world. On the whole the diplomatic legacy of Archbishop Guriy opens for a researcher another major prospect is a comprehension of the East question in his Far-Eastern projection. This vector is no less meaningful for the fates of Russia and slavonic world, what primary, especially «osmanskaya» problematika. This circumstance allows to correlate his labours with the legacy of F.M. Dostoevsky, N.Ya. Danilevsky, K.N. Leont’ev and row of other of genius domestic thinkers of the XIX century.