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The development of the ICT industry in the modern globalized world has an increasing impact on political relationships between states and various non-state actors. The article aims to research the nature of the international system of relations between states in the ICT sphere and to define whether this system is unipolar, bipolar or polycentric. By using the provisions of the international political economy, technology transfer theory and world-systems theory, as well as quantitative methods, the authors developed and substantiated the international rankings methodology of international power research in the global ICT industry based on the data of OECD TiVA FD_EXGR_VA Gross exports by origin of value added and final destination of the ICT three key industries (IT and other information services, Telecommunications, Computers, electronic and optical equipment) for every system actor. Based on this the authors evaluated the distribution of the power between the states and identified key actors, defined state functions and resulting therefrom components of the global ICT industry, competition types for these components, and by typological classification of states defined five of their types (“worker”, “altruist”, “merchant”, “median”, “consumer”), analysed their strengths and weaknesses, provided the network analysis of creating value added, which visualises the key connections between countries. Conclusions are drawn that the international system of relations between states in the ICT sphere has a polycentric nature, a number of practical results have been achieved, which contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of the uneven development of the states from the point of view of non-hierarchical models and show state functions in the ICT sphere; estimations are provided for the balance of power in the current system as a result of the process of decoupling economies and technological decoupling between USA and China.

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The article addresses social and political conflicts with a clearly defined ethnic component in the modern Spanish society. Assessing the experience of regulating interethnic and interterritorial relations between Spanish nationalities and regions, the mass immigration of diverse cultural backgrounds in the asymmetric State of Autonomies, the author examines competitive identity politics and public discourses on nation, nationalism and nation-building. Voiced by the central and subnational authorities, it frequently assumes a conflict character. This is especially customary for Catalonia, but also applies to the Basque Country and several other autonomous regions. Education and language policies are a sphere of clashing perceptions and a key priority for politics of identity involving central and regional authorities, political parties and civil society groups. The increasing phenomenon of the ethnicity politicization in the State of Autonomies complicates the formation of the civic (national) identity and enhances the potential of ethnopolitical conflicts in the country, where particularistic sentiments are sufficiently strong in the historical perspective, while the mass foreign migration introduces new interethnic and intercultural contradictions and challenges. The Spanish experience of interethnic and interterritorial relations regulation and of positive civic identity construction in the context of the federalizing State of Autonomies may be useful for the Russian Federation having some similar problems on the agenda and a continuously developing model of federal structure. Acknowledgements. This article was prepared with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation [grant no. 15-18-00021 “Regulating interethnic relations and managing ethnic and social conflicts in the contemporary world: the resource potential of civic identity (a comparative political analysis)”]. The research was conducted at the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO).