The paper is devoted to the main political conflict issue in the 21 st century using the «dominant demarcation» approach of K. Marx. The author of the article applies this methodological technique to the analysis of modern European societies that are in the process of globalization and were faced with new contradictions. The basic conflict (fundamentalism / cosmopolitan tolerance) were identified by European and American intellectuals (R. Darendorf, E. Giddens, S. Huntington) at the end of the XX century. Today, European researchers (V. Merkel, M. Tsurn) found out a new cleavage, conditionally designated as a contradiction between the «cosmopolitans» and the «communitarian». This confrontation splits modern democracies along several lines: the attitude to borders, to international structures, to free trade rules, to human rights, to climate change. Relations between the population and cosmopolitan elites are also marked as a deep conflict, which is based not only on the economic dimension (losers / beneficiaries of globalization), but also on the cultural and moral dimension. The severity of the conflict is due precisely to the combination, the imposition of several lines of demarcation (economic, political, cultural and moral). The beneficiaries of this situation are predominantly populist right-wing and left-wing parties, demonstrating electoral success in a number of European countries. Tabulated parties, especially the left flank of the political spectrum (socialists, social democrats), are required to seriously rethink their strategies and tactics in order to return voters who are disappointed in their position. Overcoming the conflict without major reform of European politics at the national and subregional level seems problematic.

The article deals with the sociological aspects of the analysis of political conflict related to the socio-structural and subjective foundations of political processes and relations. It is shown that many problems and contradictions in the social sphere, such as social polarization, excessive inequality, poverty and violation of the principles of social justice, deprivation of basic needs and interests, unstable labor employment significantly determine the field of politics and are projected on the object and subject of political conflict, weighing down their course and positive outcomes. The insolubility of social problems and contradictions, their encapsulation cause either a decrease in the population's interest in politics, in the effectiveness of democratic institutions, contribute to the widening of the gap between the «private» and «public», generate a sense of political alienation and powerlessness, or push to meet basic needs beyond the existing social norms and political institutions, to destructive forms of resolving political conflicts, which leads to a loss of control of society and social catastrophe. The sociological analysis of conflict interactions based on the predominance of horizontal connections and relationships contributes more to maintaining a dynamic balance in society and realizing the positive potential of political conflict, as it differs in flexible intra-group connections and mobile inter-group barriers in the socio-political system. Excessive class divisions and inequality tend to vertical polarization of society, which strengthens the «discontinuous» lines of interaction between the «top» and «bottom», makes the dichotomy «rule-submission» rigid, and reduces the possibilities of dialogical plasticity and flexibility of the political system.

The article discusses the development of sub-disciplines of political conflictology -the regional and urban political conflicts studies - during the period of the 1990 s - 2020 s. The main trends in the formation of scientific concepts and approaches in these areas are indicated, the features of their evolution are revealed. By the regional political conflict resolution, they are associated with limited opportunities to use foreign developments in a similar orientation. Russian researchers have developed original concepts of “complex conflict” and “bloc conflict”, which have great cognitive potential and it has not been fully realized now. The conflictologies' scientists are working in the field of studying urban development processes are faced with the need to adapt science-based approaches to the analysis of Russian conflict practices. This, in particular, has led to the limited applicability of proven interests matching technologies. The solution of these problems is possible due to the results a number the scientific projects being implemented at the present time. According to the author, at the present stage there is a certain decline in studies of regional political conflicts, associated with a reduction in public policy space in the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as stagnation in the further development of basic concepts. In the field of urban political conflict research, on the contrary, there has been an increase in the number of scientific publications, the development of theoretical and political management approaches.

The article analyzes the definitions and concepts of ethnopolitical conflict and its contradictory nature is shown. Ethnopolitical conflict can function and evolve as an “ethnized” political conflict and as a politically framed ethnic conflict. Being on the thin line between rational-political and irrational-ethnic regimes of existence, ethno-political conflicts, usually arising as conflicts of interests, as a product of ethnic entrepreneurship, most often drift towards a conflict of identities. That is why ethnopolitical conflicts are among the most intractable types of conflicts, some of them turn into protracted conflicts and are destructive in their manifestations and consequences. The article studies risk-related aspects of the interaction of ethnic and political factors of social development, leading to the ethnicization of politics and politicization of ethnicity, and it is shown that the politicization of ethnicity is a prerequisite and one of the most important factors in the genesis of ethnopolitical conflicts. The process of politicization of ethnicity is caused by ethnopolitical tension objectively established in a particular society or region, but often the main factor of this process is the focused activity of ethnic entrepreneurs, who use conditions, favorable for them, or deliberately increase the level of tension. The article discusses the theoretical and methodological aspects of the politicization of ethnicity and ethnicization of politics, analyzes the main scholarly approaches to studying the phenomenon of politicization of ethnicity and its impact on social processes. Most authors mainly accentuate the negative consequences of the politicization of ethnicity, although some researchers point to the functionality of ethnicity in regional political systems where there are long-standing and strong traditions of combining politics and ethnicity.

The article considers international negotiations as a resource of influence and creation in world politics, which is part of the social and humanitarian resource. The article analyzes the negotiation practice and research of international negotiations, starting from the second half of the twentieth century, i.e. from the moment when international negotiations receive intensive development. It is shown that at this time a huge practical and research experience was accumulated on the technology of negotiations, the role and place of negotiations in the world, which made up a social and humanitarian resource for world politics. At the end of the twentieth - beginning of the twentieth centuries there is a decline in negotiation activity and, accordingly, decline research on international negotiations, which was caused by: 1) a change in the nature of conflicts that have largely ceased to be interstate in nature and which began to arise on ethnic and religious grounds with many decentralized participants; 2) a significant reduction in the role of Russian-American relations in the world after the collapse of the USSR. Namely, the Russian-American negotiations, primarily in the field of disarmament, were the most important in international relations of the second half of the twentieth century. As a result, in the 21 st century, the number of international negotiations not only decreased, but treaties reached in the past began to be denounced, primarily by the United States. It is shown that this situation is caused by deep processes of transformation of the political organization of the world, covering its various levels, both national and supranational. As a result, a situation of uncertainty and unpredictability is created, which does not contribute to the search for negotiated solutions. However, the political organization of the world can only be transformed through negotiations. Given the scale of this transformation and the huge number of actors in the modern world, international negotiations will become of great importance, serving as a resource for building a new political organization of the world.

Power is often interpreted as a violence, which is answered by other violence on the part of the opposition. The stronger the tyranny of the government, the stronger the resistance from the opposition, even to the use of terror. The Norwegian conflictologist J. Galtung in his concept of structural and cultural violence and the American political scientist R. Galtung have convincingly shown what comes out of such a confrontation. Dahl, who explored the relationship between the government and the opposition through public rivalry. Today often consider a category of «power» is not so much traditional power key as a communicative, discourse - as a phenomenon arising out of communicating and involving the society to choose a certain political code of the alternatives proposed by the management group and resulting from their joint discourse. In this case, such tools of political communication as public criticism and alternative views on what is happening on the part of the public, the opposition helps to avoid violence and understand not only how power arises, but also why it loses its authority and the opposition strengthens. The basis for this analysis, we find in critical theory of the German marxists and, above all, the scientific representatives of the Frankfurt school H. Arendt and J. Habermas, in genetic structuralism P. Bourdieu in the theory of self-referential systems of N. Luhmann, in post-sructuralism in M. Foucault et al. The reluctance of the authorities and the opposition to cooperate with each other in the form of constructive discourse is explained in particular by the «fundamentalism» in the thinking of both. The historical concept analysis of the Russian radical opposition shows that its ontogenesis is persistently reproduced every time a political (ideological) resource of the government is developed and society loses its perspective of development, when the government does not create itself and does not perceive alternatives from its opponents and prohibits public criticism.

Digitalization, rapidly changing the image of the basic social spheres, including the political sphere, transforms the competition conditions for the two basic spheres of the inner political arena - authority and opposition. The level of development of digital technologies and their penetration into modern social processes is so high that it allows speaking about emergence of digital space, which peculiarities are taken into account in building communication and competition in this couple. Both the opposition and authority have seen a lot of new opportunities in reaching their goals and achieving their aims, but at the same time a lot of problems and vulnerabilities, which they can't not consider. In this regard the digital space brings with itself ambiguous and sometimes even controversial prospective for them. In the article the attempt to state the main problems and discussions connected to understanding the digital space as a new field of political confrontation of authority and opposition is made. For that purpose the central notions of the issue investigated such as “digitalization” and “digital space” are analysed; the most important conditions of confrontation of authority and opposition in the digital space are considered; the main outline of the changes in the interaction of authority and society is drawn; the evaluation of the influence of digital space on the “traditional” democratic institutes is given.

The concept of agonistic democracy put forward by Ch. Mouffe opposes both the understanding of political conflict as antagonistic, the parties of which regard each other as implacable enemies, and the actual denial of the conflict in the consensus theories of democracy. This concept, in which a political conflict is seen as a struggle between two opponents, each of which recognizes the legitimacy of the other, has found its implementation in the activities of new left-wing radical parties that have appeared in Western Europe over the past 10-15 years. Their appearance was a reaction to the crisis and the decline of most of the «old» left-wing radical parties that came after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR. The «new» left-wing radicals seek to develop their own identity, which is different from the communist and social-democratic ones, which is also manifested in the new emblematic symbols they invent, which are not like the sickle, hammer, and five-pointed star of the «old» left-wing radicals, and in the new discursive strategies. On the example of the Podemos party (Spain), as well as the Left Party of France and the Party «Unconquered France», it is examined how the «new» left radicals construct the subject of political action - «people», «popular majority» or simply «We», opposed «Those above», «caste», «oligarchy». But with all the harshness of anti-capitalist and anti-liberal rhetoric, the conflict of «new» left-wing radicals with the system is more agonistic than antagonistic: they want not to destroy the old institutions, but to win them back from the opposite side, not to replace democracy with the dictatorship of the advanced class, but to «return» its people and expand it.

The three-stage transformation in the framework of «humanitarian intervention - personal security - responsibility to protect (R2 P)» reflects the international community's search for the most effective forms of protecting the population from crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The concept of humanitarian intervention turned out to be untenable, and in 2005 the «responsibility to protect» was formalized. Responsibility to protect concept was intended to become an effective tool in the field of ensuring peace and security. The article deals with the approaches of the BRICS countries, which took an active part in the development of the R2 P, to its interpretation at the present stage. The contradictory semantic content and legal non-formality of the concept make it difficult to implement it in practice and divide R2 P researchers into two main groups. The key goal of the article is to study the evolution of the positions of the BRICS countries on R2 P.

The paper asserts the existence of a long-term political and legal conflict over the adoption of the law on the prevention of family and domestic violence in Russia. It is argued that this conflict reflects a discrepancy in values related to the limits of state intervention in the lives of citizens in order to ensure security. The protective order is currently considered to be a key object of conflict in the field of domestic violence law-making and criminal law policy. Analysis of the attitudes of the parties of this conflict towards this measure reveals that the initiators of the law are in the position of prioritizing the right to security and state protection for victims, while their opponents give priority to the value of the right to privacy. Based on a review of the literature on the political and legal nature of protection orders, their legislative regulation, as well as their validity, it is concluded that this measure is aimed to be coercive while its application is not accompanied by due process guarantees. Protective orders belong to the category of coercive preventive measures, the widespread use of which as solutions for crime control is of concern to lawyers and criminologists. A significant number of studies on the effectiveness of protective orders do not allow us to conclude unequivocally that this tool reduces the level of recidivism and provides needed protection to the victim. A protective order has a potential to enhance conflict and, in some instances, can lead to an escalation of violence. It is suggested that one of the possible solutions for the resolution of the ongoing law-making conflict is the option of abandoning the protective orders as a staple for preventing family conflicts and domestic violence. The reported study was funded by RFBR (project № 19-111-50667 «Expansion» «Protective order as an instrument of domestic violence prevention: legal nature and effectiveness»).

The article presents the results of an applied study of discourse formations in information flows of external origin, targeted to the Crimean and Sevastopol social media audiences. The features of external information pressure on the Crimea and Sevastopol as target regions, the methods of information aggression, information domination, carried out with the aim of deconsolidating the peninsula community, undermining the trust of its representatives of the Russian government, biasing ideas and stereotyping the motives of the leaders of the Russian state, are studied. The research design is based on a comprehensive, hybrid empirical analysis strategy and includes methods of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Cognitive mapping of the content of messages of digital communities moderated by external leaders involves a structural analysis of contextual, thematic characteristics of information related information flows, establishing a relationship between the thematic palette of external information pressure and manipulation techniques, message tonality and user resonance on these information flows. The study of discursive practices of selected digital groups is aimed at a meaningful analysis of discourse formations of various genres, discourse techniques focused on the formation of stereotypes of target groups thinking in relation to the problems of the development of Crimea as part of the Russian Federation. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion is made about thematic dominants, leading methods for the formation of discourses, the relationship between the leading techniques of stereotyping consciousness of a user audience - a target of external forces and characteristics of public resonance. At the end, as one of the many perspectives of the study, the creation of a program of recommendations aimed at counteracting anti-Russian rhetoric and stopping the negative socio-political effects of external information pressure in the social media of Crimea and Sevastopol is announced.

The article considers the essence and approaches to understanding network political protest. Traditional forms of collective action are changing under the influence of information and communication technologies. The network paradigm focuses on the position of the individual in the social space, the degree of his involvement in the communication space, the ability to control and regulate the intensity of the information flow. Network structures are more flexible and adaptive, more in line with the new reality. Special and main principles of the network structure of political protest are revealed. The article also presents definitions of political mobilization and demobilization. These processes Express the rivalry of the conflicting parties-the state and society, where the support of the broad masses of the population is an important category. Based on the data of the monitoring study, the features of the development of civil protest activism and the use of mobilization technologies were identified. ICTs have a significant impact on their formation and transformation. The state, reacting to forms of real and virtual activity, formulates a counteraction strategy. It is expressed in the use of technologies for the demobilization of citizens, which are also undergoing changes in the era of digitalization.