V. N. TIMOSHENKO. THE SOUTH PACIFIC REGION ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE XXI CENTURY. PROBLEMY VNESHNOI POLITIKI I BEZOPASNOSTI [PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN POLICY AND SECURITY], Khabarovsk: DVGGU Publishing HOUSE, 2009, 379 p.

The reviewed work fills the gap that has been formed in domestic research on this issue. The last books of Soviet historians that studied the foreign policy of the countries of the South Pacific region-Australia, New Zealand, and the island states of Oceania - were published in the 1970s and 1980s, and some articles that appeared later do not give a complete picture of the system of international relations in the region and the foreign policy of the countries that are part of in the South, at the end of the last and beginning of the present centuries.

V. N. Timoshenko combined in one monograph an idea of the modern foreign and defense policy of both the leading countries of the region (Australia, New Zealand) and the independent island states of Oceania. This approach, which allowed the author to make the transition from analyzing the foreign policy activities of individual countries to studying the modern system of international relations in the South Caucasus, revealed the scientific novelty of the peer-reviewed work.

The author bases his research on a wide range of sources, including official documents, statements of politicians, press materials, etc. He has studied and critically evaluated the works of domestic and foreign historians on the foreign policy of the Southern European countries, which allowed him to draw his own well-founded conclusions and conclusions that give the monograph theoretical and methodological significance.

The cognitive value of the work lies in the fact that it analyzes an important stage in the development of the modern system of international relations in the South, when as a result of the anti-nuclear policy of New Zealand, the trilateral defense alliance of Australia, New Zealand and the United States (ANZUS) turned into a bilateral American-Australian one, when interethnic conflicts occurred in some independent countries of Oceania (Papua-New Guinea, Solomon Islands) and military coups (Fiji), which required the intervention of Australia and New Zealand.

The period of the 1990s and early 2000s is interesting in this respect also because the ideological confrontation between the two superpowers (the USSR and the USA) has become a thing of the past and new problems in interstate relations in the South-Eastern region and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole have surfaced. In the same years, integration processes in the region continued to develop.-

In the Asia-Pacific region, which significantly influenced the system of international relations in the South-Eastern part of the world.

The globalization of world economic relations, as shown in the paper, has significantly influenced and continues to affect the foreign policy activities of the Australian and New Zealand governments, and makes adjustments to the system of international relations in the South-East. As noted in the preface to the work of Executive editor Mikhail Svetachev, "The South Pacific region can be considered as one of the first 'victims' of globalization. Its peripheral position, weak economic base, and political lack of independence made it extremely dependent on external factors, and therefore the most sensitive to any changes of a global and regional nature" (p. 3).

The introduction, which contains a list of the analyzed problems and objectives of the study, a review of sources and literature, is significantly expanded by a brief but capacious review of the formation and evolution of the foreign and defense policies of Australia and New Zealand in the XX century. This part is actually an introductory chapter to the study, and, in my opinion, it could be designated by a subtitle, separated from the mandatory part of the introduction.

In the first chapter, devoted to the analysis of Australia's foreign policy and security problems in the 1980s and 1990s, V. N. Timoshenko, based on the thesis about the relationship between domestic and foreign policy, conducts a study of the complex economic, social, political, cultural and psychological changes that occurred in Australian society after the Second World War. Perhaps for the first time in Russian history, the author analyzes in such detail the impact of the policy of multiculturalism and ethnic communities formed by immigrants from Asian countries on the country's foreign policy, and shows the role of social movements and organizations in shaping the social climate in which the Australian government's foreign policy activities are carried out. The author's remark is true that "anti-war and anti-nuclear movements had a great influence on the formation of the country's foreign policy" (p. 60).

The problems of restructuring Australia's national security policy are presented in an interesting way (pp. 61-84). V. N. Timoshenko concludes that in the mid-1980s, "for the first time in its history, Australia decided to build its defense policy based on its own strength and based on its own ideas about possible potential threats" (p. 74), and " actually dissociated itself from strategic plans participate in the global confrontation, focusing mainly on protection from possible threats of a regional nature " (p. 84).

Much attention is paid to the ANZUS crisis in connection with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific in 1985, US-Australian relations within the framework of the defense alliance, and Australian-New Zealand relations. The author notes the pragmatism and certain inconsistency of the Australian policy in the military sphere and defense cooperation.

Noting the important turn of Australian foreign policy in the 1980s and 1990s towards cooperation with Asian states within the Asia-Pacific region, where Australia and Japan initiated the creation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Organization (APEC), the author analyzed in detail the reasons and consequences of the transition to a regionalization policy, as well as the effectiveness of Australian foreign policy: while remaining loyal to the union With the United States, there is a desire to increase independence in relations with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

The second chapter of the paper contains an analysis of New Zealand's foreign policy. V. N. Tymoshenko convincingly reveals the reasons for the growth of New Zealand nationalism and the desire for a more independent foreign economic strategy within the framework of "defense of borders closer to home". American-New Zealand relations are analyzed and the reasons for their cooling are revealed. Special attention is paid to New Zealand's relations with Australia and with the countries of Oceania and its role as a guardian of the region from Soviet penetration (the "strategic counteraction" doctrine). As in the previous chapter, the author demonstrates a comprehensive approach to identifying internal and external factors that influenced the nature of the New Zealand Government's foreign policy activities. V. N. Tymoshenko showed differences in the implementation of New Zealand's foreign policy under governments headed by Labor or Conservatives. In particular, he considered in detail the problem of a "small country", to which New Zealand began to consider itself.

The analysis of the foreign policy of the island states of Oceania completes the characterization of international relations in the UTR. An important part of the paper is the last chapter, which compares the policies of the United States, the USSR, and France in the South Caucasus, which significantly complements the study. The author exposed the myth of the "Soviet threat" to the Southern European countries, showed the connection between the activity of the US Pacific policy and their military-strategic plans, and identified the reasons why France does not want to part with its Pacific possessions.

Of considerable interest is the chapter devoted to the island countries of Oceania. The problems of micro-states in the region have not yet been studied in such detail and thoroughly in Russian historiography.

V. N. Tymoshenko's conclusions presented in the chapters and in the Conclusion are well-reasoned and do not raise objections. Changes in the foreign policy relations and national security doctrines of the South Caucasus countries are linked not only to internal factors, but also to the processes that took place in the 1980s and 1990s on a global scale. This makes the analysis deeper and the conclusions more convincing.

I would like to emphasize the clear, literary style of presentation of the material. The author's involvement and use of information resources from the Internet indicates that the work was carried out at the level of modern requirements for collecting and processing documentary sources.

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