Valdai Club

Stefan Meister

Zhang Ming

Christian Makarian

Sergey Mikhnevich

Vladimir Mazyrin

Mikhail Mamonov

Anita Mujumdar

Michael McFaul

Alexei Mukhin

Rein Müllerson

Estonia

Professor Emeritus, Tallinn University.

Author of 30 books on international law and politics and more than 200 articles and reviews. His latest books are International Law: Rights and Politics (1994); Human Rights Diplomacy (1997); Ordering Anarchy: International Law in International Society (2000); Central Asia: A Chessboard and Player in the New Great Game (2007 and second edition in 2012); Democracy Promotion: Institutions, International Law and Politics (2008); Democracy – A Destiny of Humankind: A Qualified, Contingent and Contextual Case for Democracy Promotion (2009, in 2013 published also in Estonian); Regime Change: From Democratic Peace Theories to Forcible Regime Changes (2013, forthcoming in 2017 in Chinese); Dawn of a New Order: Geopolitics and the Clash of Ideologies (2017).

Materials

The UN Security Council at 75: Potential and Challenges

Approaching its 75th anniversary, the UN Security Council is not in the best of its health. Many experts believe that the matter is in the composition and rules of procedure of the Council that do not correspond anymore (if they ever did) to the character of, and the challenges facing, the twenty first century world. But is a radical reform of the Security Council really needed? Valdai Club expert Rein Müllerson explains why this may not be the case.

Competition for New Conspiracy Theories Is Open

there is a category of such theories that are now hailed and widely circulated over the mainstream Western media. One of the most incredible claims that Russia is meddling in democratic processes in the West – the Benjamin Griveaux affairs in France – prompted French journalist Ingrid Riocreux to publish an article entitled Russian interference – an authorised conspiracy theory’.

2019 – A Year of Remarkable Anniversaries: What Do They Tell Us?

The years that end with number 9 have seen more notable events than those ending with other numbers. Therefore, it was not surprising that 2019 witnessed some pompous celebrations and commemorations. 2019 marked the 80 years since the beginning of the Second World War and 30 years had passed from the end of the Cold War, if we take the fall of the Berlin wall as the benchmark of the end of the bipolar world.

Brexit: A Tip of an Iceberg Crumbling Under the Tides of Globalisation

How Britain will pass this revolutionary moment in its history will depend not only on British politicians and its electorate but also from the will and wisdom of European leaders. Meddling through as usual is not any more good enough. These are times for visionaries with will-power. Where are they? Where do they come from?

Elections to the European Parliament: What to Expect?

Both progressiveness and conservatism have their place and value as well as their flipside. Not every change or innovation is for the better, not every tradition needs to be preserved. However, if without change and innovation we would still live in caves, by squandering our inheritance we lose our humanity.

Did Europe Die in Pristina?

It was exactly 20 years ago (the NATO bombardment started 24 March 1999) that for the first time after the Second World War somebody, in complete disrespect of international law, used massive military force in the very centre of Europe. This aggression, covered by the fig leaf of a humanitarian intervention, quite an oxymoron, opened the door wide to further unprincipled use of force in other places.

The Groundhog Day in Munich

Though the world has continuing to change, and basically along the lines that had existed already before the 2017 MSC, the 2019 MSC was like a replay of the 2017 MSC, somewhat similar to the Groundhog Day in the 1993 romantic comedy with Bill Murray in the leading role.

Europe Disunited and What to Do About It?

Russia is a European country and alienating it is not in Europe’s interest. I am not at all sure that it is even in the American enlightened (too much to expect?) interest. Although the Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok (or to the Urals) may be somebody’s nightmare in Washington, even bigger nightmare should be a Beijing-Moscow axis. And not only in Washington, but also in European capitals.

A Critique of Liberal Imperialism

Modern democracy, originating in Western European societies, has had dialectical relationships (i.e., relationships, in which different phenomena, depending on concrete circumstances, have a kind of friend-enemy relationships) with three phenomena that have, on the one hand, supported democracy’s emergence and growth while also putting limits on its expansion and deepening. These three phenomena are nationalism, capitalism and liberalism.

The Syrian Endgame, International Law and a French Comedy

When the light at the end of the dismal tunnel, through which the people of Syria have gone during the last seven years plus, has become visible, the voices of those who are unhappy that the war seems to become to an end not in their terms, are also becoming more and more vociferous. In their self-righteousness, they are ready to indefinitely prolong the suffering of the Syrian people, if the peace does not come in their terms.

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Video

Results of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje. An Expert Discussion

01.12.2023