Editorial note

This issue of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science features a diverse selection of articles exploring various political aspects. These contributions offer insightful analyses on topics ranging from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's populist discourse to the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this issue introduces the Conversations section, a platform for diverse forms of academic engagement. This section is open to opinion essays, interviews, pedagogical discussions, film commentaries, and critical reflections on academic events within the realm of Political Science. It aims to expand the boundaries of Political Science to encompass creative interventions and interdisciplinary dialogue. In this issue, the Conversations section focuses on transnational collaborations in academia, with reflections on student engagement and academic publishing experiences.

Тезис о начальной стадии социализма

The article is devoted to the actual problem of political modernization of China. The key role in this process plays the Communist party of China, developing and consequently implementing the doctrine of special model of socialism in China. Within this model the theory of the initial stage of socialism is of special interest. This article deals with this theory.Статья посвящена актуальному вопросу политической модернизации современного Китая. Ключевую роль в этом процессе играет Коммунистическая партия Китая, разрабатывающая и последовательно реализующая доктрину социализма с китайской спецификой. В рамках этой доктрины особый интерес представляет теория о начальной стадии социализма, освещенная в данной статье

Gendered securitisation: Trump's and Putin's discursive politics of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article presents a study of the discursive politics of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States and Russia from its early onset to 30 April 2020. We examine how official securitisation discourses in the two countries draw on gendered constructions of national identity and discuss what linkages and potential implications they have for the state, its policy, and its society. Our analysis shows that both the US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin instrumentalise hierarchical gendered identities to securitise COVID-19. They mobilise gendered narratives, imageries, and practices to affirm particular understandings of the threat and create a homogeneous national ‘we’, portraying themselves as its guardians

China’s belt and road initiative in Russian media: politics of narratives, images, and metaphors

Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) it is obvious that China is crafting a new space for itself in the international system and becoming more assertive and confident in its international dealings, including in Eurasia, typically considered by Russia as its backyard. This raises the question of how the BRI is presented and perceived in Russia. The article explores this question by examining the coverage of the BRI in Russia’s major newspapers between 2013 and 2019. It traces the visibility of different topics in Russian media coverage of BRI and maps the shifts in its focus over six years. The article demonstrates that while the definition of BRI in Russian newspapers includes multiple and often contradictory discursive frames that compete with each, Sino-Russian cooperation in Eurasia and, specifically, Russian proposal of “linking up” of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and BRI are unanimously supported and approved as a strategy that suits Russia’s international status. Consequently, it can be concluded that Russian newspapers support the official narrative of Sino-Russian relations and follow trends rather than create them. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Soft Power in Global Politics. Part I. Regional Dimension. The Works of the Round Table

On 5 of June 2012 at the department of comparative politics of the PFUR was held the round table: «Soft power in global politics: regional and functional dimensions”