The world is experiencing dramatic transformations determined by political and economic shifts in the roles of the West and the East, the North and the South. These changes pose huge challenges on the global and national levels, testing international institutions and national governments and creating crises on all levels and in different spheres. The article examines how the public policy agenda is changing under permanent shocks. The author comes to the conclusion that the public policy agenda is under the pressure of short-term and emergency-oriented tasks in expense of strategic issues, but in order to provide sustainable development, the governments should support long-term projects, internal social coherence and external mutual dialogue, using the most advanced tools of social and natural sciences, as well as the opportunities of digitalization. Only this proactive, but careful and civilizationally grounded approach will provide peaceful solution of current and future challenges.

The crisis in Russian relations with the West has become a key trigger for a real “Pivot to East” in Russian foreign policy. The new edition of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, approved by the Decree of the President of Russia dated March 31, 2023, proclaims and describes this turn in sufficient detail, expanding the space for scientific diplomacy within the framework of international humanitarian cooperation. This space is filled with “fields of ideas” that are formed within the framework of the relationship of the expert community with decision makers within the country and with foreign colleagues and partners. These “fields of ideas” are currently rather poorly organized “exhibitions of ideas” than “markets of ideas”, where their active production and exchange takes place. The study of the reasons for this using the tools of institutional constructivism, discursive institutionalism and “institutional logic” allowed us to identify the problems of their functioning and possible prospects for development. The latter require the active development of Russian and international “fields of ideas” within the framework of scientific diplomacy in a competitive format, while being ready to compete with both Western and “non-Western” actors. On the way of such transformation, there may be several institutional traps and dead ends, on the successful overcoming of which the success of such a transformation will depend.

The article examines the concept of multilateral cultural diplomacy. Based on the content analysis of documents (various communiqués, declarations, charters, plans, programs, etc.) of international organizations (Council of Europe, European Union, ASEAN, SCO, BRICS, Arab League, etc.) in most cases over the last three year, the following innovative elements in multilateral cultural diplomacy are highlighted: cultural rights (strengthening their role in culture); the “green” agenda and the related implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals; digitalization; “evolution” of cultural heritage protection from a set of specific measures to a global concept; shaping the cultural security agenda through the prism of protecting against disinformation and strengthening regional identity.

The article presents an analysis of the restrictions on legislative lobbying and the ban on participation in political campaigns for religious organizations covered by section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The existing institutional framework for lobbying activities of such organizations is considered in the context of the recommendations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for churches and religious organizations and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops guidelines for catholic organizations on acceptable forms of political and lobbying activity.

Since the 18^th century, the Russian Empire sent Orthodox Ecclesiastical missions to three countries in East Asia: Russian missionaries were active in China, Japan, and Korea. The Russo- Japanese War of 1904-1905 affected the development of missions and Orthodoxy in East Asia. The article analyzes the common features of Orthodox missions in East Asia in the context of the development of Russian Ecclesiastical missions in the three East Asian countries during the Russo- Japanese War and the impact of the war on Orthodox Christianity in East Asia. The article examines and compares three Russian missions and identifies similarities and connections between them.