The authors consider in detail the topic of the private military services market as a special system with a limited number of participants and extremely limited effect of market laws. Special attention is paid to the topic of the relationship between the customer and the contractor, as containing a counterintuitive problem - the desire of the contractor to maximize the customer's expenses and delay the implementation of the tasks set. Another contradiction is connected with this problem - the balance of control and efficiency, the study of which is also given in this paper. The authors consider the key features of the private military services market, the actors that operate on it, the mechanisms for regulating the activities of customers and performers, which, in essence, determine the contradictions that arise between them. A special contribution to the study of this problem by the authors is the consideration of Private military companies as an element of the private military services market. The market itself seems to the authors to be a source of key contradictions in the relationship between the principal and the agent in the implementation of military tasks. The authors reveal the system of interaction in the military services market by establishing the main influencing factors of both the external environment and the market's influence on the environment. For the first time, the interaction of the customer-PMCs within the framework of existing contracts is considered in detail, the interests of the parties and the mechanisms for their implementation are systematized. The authors consider two methods of solving already existing contradictions: the method of "strategic privatization" and the method of "deal with Faust". The authors have developed an original method of "controlled competition", which potentially solves a greater number of contractual contradictions.

This article examines the issue of the strategic development of the environmental policy of the European Union in modern conditions. The assessment of the "European Green Course" is given, political, economic and environmental risks are assessed in the context of the implementation of the EU environmental policy. The authors also identify the criteria for the formation of the EU environmental policy, as well as analyze the basic principles of the implementation of pan-European legislation on environmental policy. It is concluded that the environmental policy of the European Union depends on the so-called "compactness factor", which plays a key role in shaping the principles of implementation and building a coherent environmental policy. In general, in this part of the study, the authors reveal the technologies of the political and economic impact of the EU environmental policy on the life of the member states. In many ways, this influence can be traced in the activities of youth environmental movements, which form the environmental agenda in the union and the request for changes. At the same time, the authors note the high conflictogenic potential of these movements. In general, the modern environmental policy of the EU is a catalyst for the actualization of various economic and political problems, the mechanisms of formation of which are considered by the authors. The article presents forecasts regarding the implementation of the EU environmental policy in the next few years and likely trends.

The object of research in this paper is the modern environmental policy of the European Union, while the subject of research is the relationship and mutual influence of the EU environmental policy in the context of the ongoing conflict of interests on this issue in various market segments. Also in this article, the authors tried to trace the dependencies of the mechanism of implementation of the environmental policy of the European Union, establishing what impact it has on the society of European countries and their economies, and what reverse impact these areas have on environmental policy. The "European Green Course" has become the central subject of research, since the effectiveness and mechanisms of its implementation at the pan-European and national levels reveal the essence of the modern environmental policy of the European Union. The authors identify the criteria for the formation of the EU environmental policy, as well as analyze the basic principles of the implementation of pan-European legislation on environmental policy. It is concluded that the environmental policy of the European Union has one interesting feature: it is one and different at the same time. The norms and rules of each specific country differ in their strength and target areas, while the result of the application of these norms, the targets, remain equal for all countries of the Union. The compactness factor of the European Union plays a significant role in shaping the principles of implementing and building a coherent environmental policy: any environmental incident has consequences for almost all EU member states, geographically the countries are located compactly, and the current relationship between the industrial concerns of EU countries makes them extremely sensitive to supply chain disruptions.

The authors study the cooperation between China and the African Union during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic within the Forum on China-Africa cooperation, and consider the peculiarities of relations between China and the African continent. The article studies China’s regional interests before and during the pandemic. Using the analysis of China’s humanitarian work in Africa and its comparison with the assistance of the U.S., Europe, and Russia, the authors detect the obvious interest of Beijing in the cooperation with the countries of the continent, and its urge to press the U.S.’s hegemony in Africa and strengthen China’s positions in the region through cooperation within the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation bypassing other global actors. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the analysis of cooperation between Beijing and the African continent in the context of the Forum on China-Africa in the coronavirus period. In the pre-COVID epoch, China’s activities in Africa, its political, economic and imperial ambitions have been actively studied; the economic, political and military perversion of China through the Forum on China-Africa, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Region and China’s initiatives like “One belt and one road” have been studied thoroughly. However, the assessment of the COVID period has become possible only recently when the results of new cooperation concepts became visible. The authors formulate the following conclusions. The effectiveness of cooperation between China and Africa in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic is still high and is further deepening. The Forum on China-Africa, in which each country of the African Union is represented and has a voting right on the equal basis with other member-states, plays a significant role in cooperation strengthening. The authors believe that it is early days yet to speak about China’ supremacy over the U.S. and Europe in Africa, but Beijing is moving in this direction.