The article speaks about creating a powerful transport platform, being the basis of accelerated regional development in a continental scale. The author notes that development of meridional transport corridors in the Russian Federation is necessary both for accelerating the eastern regions development and for preservation and consolidation of historically friendly relations with the southern countries. The author emphasizes the fact that materialization of advanced initiative will allow our country to capitalize constantly on benefits and competitive advantage, which cannot be obtained through other decisions.

The article analyzes Chinese experience and the possibility of its creative borrowing on Russian soil. The author, considering globalization strategy in Russian context, concludes that it represents a complex set of interrelated and interdependent issues related to participation of Russia as a subject in global revolutions, political and humanitarian modernization, economic and technological transformation, as well as to the presence of political will to defend national interests, foresight and sagacity. In this regard, the author concludes that the lessons of China have lasting significance for Russia.

The Russian economy continues to deliver distressing news. In the first five months of 2013 market index of “Economic Strategies” (MIES) grew up by only 3.1 points. The article authors examine in detail the current state of the Russian economy in January – May 2013.

The article represents a neuro-forecast, prepared by the Institute of Energy Strategy and the Institute for Economic Strategies. Actual forecast gives a minimum of .8 per barrel by the end of 2014, and the maximum of 4 per barrel by the end of 2013.

In recent discussions of future wars character and methods of future warfare Russian authors in their works often use such terms as “network-centric”, “network” war, “network-centric warfare”, “network-centric operations”, “network-centric counteraction”, “network-centricity”,”universal network-centric tools” and etc. up to “defensive network-centricity “. At the same time authors sometimes attribute quite different meanings and significance to these concepts. Just the meaning of the term “network-centric war”, the possibility and feasibility of applying “network-centric” war concept to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are referred to in the article.

The author believes that recognition of cognitive functions of social network does not deny the existence of an individual intelligence and does not replace it with a collective one. The article dwells on the definition of intelligence as the ability to be able, which develops throughout the whole life, and it concludes that in the network society development of such capabilities more and more depends on involvement in networking.

Over the past decades, more and more importance in the social and political spheres is acquired by network structures, propagating in different countries and regions of the world and in different spheres of society. In particular, they form the basis of civil society as a “set of civilizational structures and forms, incarnated in … the functions and actions of individuals, social groups, associations, unions”, which are capable in the interests of ordinary citizens to exercise democratic “control … of the state bodies functioning”, that is, of public persons activities. This article focuses on the organizational principles of network structures and exercises biopolitical approach, according to which the structures of human society and biological system are compared. The term “network structures” has at least two different interpretations in the literature, which can be conditionally called its broad and narrow interpretation.

From the perspective of the network approach a working team is characterized as a local socio-cognitive network included in the overall networking. However, to understand the creative potential of the working team, according to the authors, specifying only localization of network order of social-cultural interactions is not enough. The analysis of creative team work aspects reveals some over-network phenomenon, which the authors called a common creative field.

The idea of the article came to one of its authors more than three years ago, when he answered the questionnaire while applying for an Executive MBA in one of the foreign business schools. The question was about what one expects from the MBA program and what benefits he gets participating in the program. Given that he already had experience of working as an independent director in a number of Russian state-owned and private companies, he answered the questions appropriately, keeping in mind the challenges that he had faced. The article, as he thought at the time, had to be called “What for does MBA serve for independent director.” (This is the question he actually answered by filling the questionnaire of the business school.) And at the end of his two-year training his view changed and the article acquired the current title.