Минуле як відображення концепцій сучасності в міжнародних відносинах: обмеження та можливості презентизму

Explication of history from the point of view of the present, its interpretation in order aimed at presenting an argument for one's modern ideological positions is known as "presentism". On the one hand it is a destructive phenomenon because it distorts an understanding of the past and even provides the broader audience with false facts about events that never actually took place. However, on the other hand, as it is argued in this article, an ideologically neutral historiography of events, especially those related to international relations, is practically an utopian and unattainable ideal. Reconstructing history to legitimize or critique the ideological positions of the modern world order is a ubiquitous phenomenon, illustrated in this article by the example of Swedish-Finnish relations. Since presentism distorts the understanding of the past and also is inevitable, this article discusses two strategies for its application that can minimise its negative side effects. The first is the purposeful and open presentist position of a researcher who reinterprets the works or events of the past within his or her methodological framework to track those ideological components that led to the emergence of relevant ideologies or paradigms later. This position is also known as a new reading of the text. The second is the reinterpretation of events or texts through the practice of rethinking them from the standpoint of their actor or author, a kind of "living through" the role and context of the time, trying to understand how people thought and reacted in the past to what others wrote and why. This article points out that the second position agrees with the methodological requirement of the Cambridge School of Intellectual History. Promising for further research is the search and analysis of presentist positions in the interpretation of the modern role of Ukraine on the international arena and its place in the system of international relations.