FREEDOM OF TRAVEL AND INTERNATIONAL TOURISM AS COMPONENTS OF “DÉTENTE” DIPLOMACY(TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIGNING OF THE HELSINKI FINAL ACT)

Background. The rapid growth of international tourism has turned the problem of human contacts into a matter of “high” diplomacy of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which became the crown of the defusion of international tensions. The influence of the Helsinki process on the liberalisation of the mobility regime in Europe is an important scientific and practical problem, the solution of which will allow us to conceptualise the international political potential of tourism as a means of peaceful involvement of socialist regimes in the process of pan-European cooperation, overcoming the bloc division of the European continent and the formation of a liberal world order. Methods. The complex nature of the international travel and tourism industry requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines the basic methods of international political science, history and sociology (political analysis, historical and descriptive, comparative, systemic and structural-functional). Results. Even at the early stages of détente, the foreign policy of the United States and Western European countries was aimed at promoting tourism and cultural contacts with Eastern European countries, where there were numerous restrictive practices regarding visits to non-socialist countries and the entry of foreigners. Promoting the presence of Western tourists was linked to the spread of relevant market and cultural influences, and was seen as an important channel of diplomatic cooperation and a tool for overcoming the division of the European continent. As part of the preparatory process for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the subsequent Helsinki process, the issue of international tourism and extensive contacts between peoples emerged as a central theme for ensuring human rights and freedoms that transcended the internal jurisdiction of states and became universal. Conclusions. It has been established that the policy of “détente” of international tensions has influenced the growth of the political importance of tourism and travel as a channel of international communication and cooperation between the East and the West. The Helsinki Accords became a key document determining the transition to the liberalisation of the mobility regime between the socialist and capitalist camps, designed to ensure the transformation of Eastern Europe and create a pan-European space for cooperation.