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Статья посвящена вкладу неправительственных организаций в предупреждение и урегулирование международных конфликтов. Показано, что неправительственные организации выполняют коммуникативную функцию, исполняют роль посредника. Автором достаточно подробно представлены «дипломатия второго направления» и «полуторная дипломатия». В статье выявлены и раскрыты основные преимущества и недостатки каждой из внешнеполитических практик.

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The international activities of governments at the subnational level have become widespread practice. Cooperation between local authorities, which began in Europe with the aim of promoting peace, international understanding, and reconciliation between peoples in the post-war period, has spread throughout the world over time. International cityto- city partnerships, also known as sister cities, have become an instrument for promoting economic development. The movement of sister cities is considered not only as a form of cross-border intermunicipal cooperation, but also as one of the aspects of paradiplomacy. One of the consequences of regionalization that swept post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s was the growth of foreign economic activity, international contacts of both Russian regions and cities. This is reflected in the signing of intermunicipal agreements. This research is aimed at determining the factors on which the international activity of Russian cities depends. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work was the concept of paradiplomacy in general and city diplomacy in particular. The author put forward several hypotheses in the framework of the approaches to high international activity of cities existing in the scientific literature. The database was a list of sister cities, including 150 Russian municipalities compiled by the International Association of Related Cities. Statistical calculations were performed by multiple linear regression. As a result of the study, it was found that a large number of sister cities are observed in Russian cities, which can be attributed to megacities and large cities. It was revealed that a high level of international activity of Russian cities is characteristic of municipalities located in border regions. It is shown that economic characteristics directly affect the number of contracts. The author came to the conclusion that the status of the administrative center of Russian regions positively affects on the number of sister cities. The article emphasizes the influence of the historical heritage of territories on the development of inter-municipal cultural cooperation. In conclusion, it is noted that the influence of demographic, geographical, economic, political, legal, and cultural-historical features of municipalities on the number of sister cities does not explain all cases. The author believes that the political factor has a certain explanatory power.

Introduction: the study of ethnic conflicts in Russia is one of the most popular research areas. Research reviews show that many authors seek to define the determinants of interethnic conflict in the subjects of the Russian Federation and to understand what causes the regional differentiation in interethnic tension. Objectives: to find an answer to the question of why the interethnic tension is high in some Russian regions and low in others. Methods: several theoretical and methodological approaches to the explanation of interethnic conflicts have been considered. Based on the theoretical approaches existing in sociology and political science, the author formulates working hypotheses and checks them empirically using the regression analysis method. The information base of the research was made up of data from Rosstat, the Rating of Regional Democracy by the Carnegie Moscow Center, the “Grapes of Wrath” Rating of Interethnic Tension in the Russian Regions. Results: a considerable ethnic patchiness leads to an increase in interethnic tension. It has been shown that a positive relationship exists between economic crisis and interethnic conflict. Statistical calculations have demonstrated that the growth in regional democracy is accompanied by the increase in interethnic tensions. Conclusions: the research results made it possible for the author to identify the regional interethnic tension determiners, resulting in around 30 % of all the cases. This brings about the necessity to further use the qualitative methods of data analysis and case-study research.