L. L. FITUNI Doctor of Economics I. O. ABRAMOVA Doctor of Economics Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: international security, non-state actors, world politics, jihadism, "Islamic Africa" The events of the "Arab Spring" led to significant changes in the geostrategic balance in the regions located near the southern borders of Russia. These developments directly relate to both the strategic interests of the Russian Federation and actual practical issues of the country's security. In addition to the negative geopolitical consequences and the narrowing of opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between the Russian Federation and Asian and African countries, they are manifested in an increase in external and internal threats emanating from international terrorism, political, ethnic, religious and ideological extremism. As time passes, it becomes increasingly clear that the Arab Spring phenomenon is based, on the one hand, on a complex interweaving of internal local socio-economic and political problems, and, on the other, on a geostrategic competition for influence and dominance between the world's leading powers, regional State and non - State players. The latter are now commonly referred to as non-state actors in international relations.1 This term is relatively new. He came to Russian science from English-language literature after the collapse of the USSR. The foreign strategy and tactics of the United States, followed by its junior partners, are based on the concept of "two layers" of modern world politics, which includes, on the one hand, the field of interstate relations, and on the other, the emerging field where the key role belongs to non - state actors. ANGA IN THE THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The range of specific representatives of NGA is quite wide. These include non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations( TNCs), religious groups, dispersed (also called cross-border or transnational) ethnic diasporas, so ... Read more