Book
The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights
This volume is based on the premise that moral claims made about sports mega-events
constitute one of the most visible and significant sources of normative expectations about
international affairs. Thanks to sport’s extraordinary popularity, what we expect of international
sport helps shape what we expect of the international order. Few events, if any, draw the level of
global attention that the Olympic Games and the men's soccer World Cup excite. In 2012, an
estimated 70% of the world’s population participated in some way in the Olympic Games;
figures for the 2010 men’s soccer World Cup show close to half the world’s population watching
at least some of the coverage.1 These events do not simply offer a representation of a global
order; they create, reinforce, and propagate normative views about that global order, helping to
constitute the moral rules and expectations that guide and inspire it.
The volume traces the origins and development of international sport’s major idealistic
claims and examines how they have operated in particular contexts. Chapters investigate the
functions idealistic claims have served, what kind of politics they have abetted, and why they
have been believable, when, and to whom. It aims to understand how different ideals have
worked sometimes in tension and sometimes in harmony and how the relative power of each
ideal has waxed and waned as a result of changes in international politics. The contributions
probe contestation over ideals by organizers, proponents, and critics; the legitimizing strategies
that have underpinned those claims; the relationship of these claims to broader currents of
international idealism; and how these claims have influenced conceptions of world order.
The Olympic Games of 1980 and 2014 present a case study in the hosting of sport mega-events by repressive regimes. In both cases, the authoritarian government sought hosting rights in order to enhance their own legitimacy, an aim that was largely met at home but at the cost of incurring damaging criticism abroad about human rights violations. In both cases, the Games sparked debates about how sporting events could be most effectively used to improve human rights overall. These debates revolved around familiar poles: on the one hand, claims that the events could help spur reform, and on the other hand, the argument that hosting would lead to heightened abuses. In 1980 even before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan triggered a large- scale boycott, some voices in Western Europe and the United States were arguing that Moscow should be spurned because of the Soviet Union’s record of repression. In 2014 though some boycott calls were made, boycotting seemed a less compelling tactic. Instead, reformers hoped to achieve results through public pressure. In the final tally, the results of both Games suggest that sports mega-events in repressive regimes are likely to lead to more repression.

The author researches the key problems of the formation of the Russian-speaking Diaspora in a separate poly-ethnic region. The major trends of the adaptation of the Russian-speaking Diaspora in Finland have been studied as well.
This compendium comprises transcript of the workshop on ‘Human Rights on the Internet: legal frames and technological implications’ organized by the Higher School of Economics on the 7th Internet Governance Forum (Baku, Azerbaijan, 6–9 November, 2012) and relevant articles on legal and technological issues of Internet Governance in sphere of human rights, prepared by the group of legal and technical scholars of information studies of the Higher School of Economics. This compendium is devoted to the forthcoming 8th Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum on Bali, Indonesia, 22–25 October 2013.
The article deals with the processes of building the information society and security in the CIS in accordance with modern conditions. The main objective is to review existing mechanisms for the formation of a common information space in the Eurasian region, regarded as one of the essential aspects of international integration. The theoretical significance of the work is to determine the main controls of the regional information infrastructure, improved by the development of communication features in a rapid process.The practical component consists in determining the future policies of the region under consideration in building the information society. The study authors used historical-descriptive approach and factual analysis of events having to do with drawing the contours of today's global information society in the regional refraction.
The main result is the fact that the development of information and communication technologies, and network resources leads to increased threats of destabilization of the socio-political situation in view of the emergence of multiple centers that generate the ideological and psychological background. Keeping focused information policy can not be conceived without the collective participation of States in the first place, members of the group leaders of integration - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Currently, only produced a comprehensive approach to security in the information field in the Eurasian region, but the events in the world, largely thanks to modern technology, make the search for an exit strategy with a much higher speed. The article contributes to the science of international relations, engaging in interdisciplinary thinking that is associated with a transition period in the development of society. A study of current conditions in their relation to the current socio-political patterns of the authors leads to conclusions about the need for cooperation with the network centers of power in the modern information environment, the formation of alternative models of networking, especially in innovation and scientific and technical areas of information policy, and expanding the integration of the field in this region on the information content.
This special publication for the 2012 New Delhi Summit is a collection of articles by government officials from BRICS countries, representatives of international organizations, businessmen and leading researchers.
The list of Russian contributors includes Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, Maxim Medvedkov, Director of the Trade Negotiations Department of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, Vladimir Dmitriev, Vnesheconombank Chairman, Alexander Bedritsky, advisor to the Russian President, VadimLukov, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, and representatives of the academic community.
The publication also features articles by the President of Kazakhstan NursultanNazarbayev and internationally respected economist Jim O’Neil, who coined the term “BRIC”. In his article Jim O’Neil speculates about the future of the BRICS countries and the institution as a whole.
The publication addresses important issues of the global agenda, the priorities of BRICS and the Indian Presidency, the policies and competitive advantages of the participants, as well as BRICS institutionalization, enhancing efficiency and accountability of the forum.