No matter how the modern world order “crumbles”, the dimensions of the modern world cannot be reduced to mere security issues
The Russian community of international relations professionals and pundits is strongly influenced by political realism. Being a realist is a good rule of thumb when it comes to mainstream approaches to international affairs. “Enemy” liberalism, “freaky” constructivism,...
... vast assemblage of flavours, highlights and shades of aftertaste processed through the copper alembic of the liberal paradigm rather than pure ethanol as it is. Liberals hold on to the premise that states are well short of being stand-alone actors in international relations, as they are—to different extents—represented by various group interests being in complex interaction with each other. In approaching some foreign policy, liberals will tend to taste the flavours of culture, the highlights ...
... debated either as free-riding (abusing the international system with a view to gaining unilateral advantages) or as far as revisionism, which implies taking advantage of their important standing to revise the codified and uncodified rules and norms in international relations [Tammen et al. 2000; Davidson 2016; Schweller2015]. The rise of new powers, though, contributed just as well to debates on multilateralism and multipolarity of today’s world [Sakwa 2020].
As China was becoming increasingly assertive,...
Over fifty leading experts, former statesmen and diplomats from many countries of the world took part in the event
On November 27–28, 2020, the Canadian Institute for 21st Century Questions (21CQ) together with Global Brief Magazine held a two-day virtual global conference on "The State and Future of the World: Post-Pandemic and Post-U.S. Election".
Over fifty leading experts, former statesmen and diplomats from many countries of the world took part in the event. Andrey Kortunov, RIAC...
On July 20, 2020, the role of nationalism and national identity in contemporary international relations was discussed during an online expert meeting
On July 20, 2020, the role of nationalism and national identity in contemporary international relations was discussed during an online expert meeting.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director ...
Multilateralism, like any other format of diplomatic activity, will always be as effective or ineffective as the players who practice them want
The term “multilateralism” is not specifically elaborated in Russian international relations theory. For a long time, it has remained in the shadow of the much more popular term “multipolarity,” although the latter is gradually being replaced in Russian literature by the term "polycentrism.” Sometimes, it seems ...
The First Take on Humanity’s KPI in Combating the Coronavirus
All epidemics end sooner or later. Today’s coronavirus pestilence will also end, leaving behind many human tragedies, huge economic losses, forced changes in our customary way of life, shifts in geopolitics and worldviews that will in some manner affect each and every one of us. Although we still have a long way to go before the pandemic even peaks, it is never too early to ponder the outcomes we are ready to accept as relatively “benign”...
Territory and its morphology assume a key role in geopolitics
Geopolitics, as an autonomous discipline, has a very particular cultural genesis, and it is not possible to ignore the deepening of the era in which it developed. His great forefathers can be considered the first geographers who in the nineteenth century began to think of the world as a relationship between human groups and territorial spaces. This relationship, of course, produced organizational differences and particularities, and...
Crisis of the state system, Economic and financial disorder, the rise of non-state actors, climate change, migrations, decline of international institutions
1. Crisis of the state system.
In coming years, we are likely to see a continuous crisis of the traditional state system, particularly in such places as the MENA region, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and in parts of the former Soviet Union. Weak states might face a challenge of losing their sovereignty; they will not be in a position to provide...
... doctrine not yet codified that we could call
neo-compellence
. According to Andrey Kokoshin, military strikes of the US and their allies against Syria on the 14th of April 2018 led to the conclusion that continuation of such actions would destabilize international relations. Negotiations on arms control, which previously were intensive, came to an end. This situation jeopardized the INF Treaty. It also made very unclear the perspectives of a prolongation of the New START Treaty after 2021
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.The ...