Varyvoda Y. Information strategies in foreign policy of the USA and Russian Federation under the crisis conditions.

The dissertation is dedicated to the research of the latest tendencies in application of information instruments of the US and Russian Federation foreign policy. It is focused on the analysis of realization of national foreign-policy interests by information instruments under the conditions of international crises. In particular, it examines the processes of development and implementation of foreign-policy information strategies. Particular attention is paid to theoretical and applied issues of application of information-communicative instruments of influence on external audiences, modern tendencies in organization of international communications under the crisis conditions, as well as to the national practices in this sphere which influence substantially the development and implementation of Ukraine's foreign policy. Author's conception of foreign-policy information strategy is formulated. The problems of definition and realization of information strategy are generalized, and the new model of foreign-policy information strategy in wide and narrow understanding is developed. Based on the study of practice of information confrontation during the war against terrorism a new information weapon is identified and analysed - a weapon of "mass psychical destruction", whose objective is to undermine the feeling of safety, diseminate panic and fear. It is shown that not only public consciousness but also political institutes, economic and cultural-civilization systems become the object of such information impact. Leading tendencies in the information support of the US foreign policy under the condition of current permanent crisis, as well as patterns of foreign-policy information strategies of the Russian elites during crisis in post-soviet states are unveiled. Author considered corresponding suggestions related to the development of Ukraine's national foreign-policy information strategy.