4th annual conference of the Middle East Dialogue of the Valdai International Discussion Club, titled “Islam in Politics: Ideology or Pragmatism?”, will take place in Marrakesh, Morocco, on May 14-15.
Issues of commonalities and differences in the Muslim communities of Russia and Canada, as well as problems of their integration into the legal frameworks of their respective countries, were the main topics of discussion at the conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation
The conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation presented by Carleton’ Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Political Science, the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam, and the Valdai Discussion Club is to be held on March 8, 2013 at the Carleton University, Ottawa.
The analytical report “Russia’s Economy: after Transformation, before Modernization” was prepared after discussions at the Valdai Discussion Club Summit held on October 21–22, 2012. The report incorporates many of the conclusions on Russia’s political development contained in the 2011 Valdai report “Russia Should Not Miss Its Chance: Development Scenarios”.
The Russia Development Index (Valdai Index) reflects the combined opinion of the world's leading experts on Russia as regards Russia’s political, economic, social, cultural and international performance. The annual poll aims to study changes in Russia’s development trends over a year. It is important that respondents assess not the current situation, but changes.
The analytical report “Military Reform: Toward the New Look of the Russian Army” summarizes the results of the conference of the Valdai Discussion Club Defense and Security section titled “Modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces and Cooperation in International Security” which was held on May 25-27, 2011 in Moscow.
For the first time in history, Russia had a politician who defended national rather than narrow departmental or corporate interests. Pyotr Stolypin said if Russia were allowed 20 years of domestic and foreign tranquility, his contemporaries would not have recognized the country anymore.
The Soviet inheritance remains strong throughout the old Russian lands, while the image of the West has suffered from financial overstretch, leadership decline, and waning U.S. power. In all this, Russia has two options for modernization. One looking to Eurasia, the other looking West, to Europe in general and Germany in particular, to forge a long term balanced relationship.
By 1991 the Soviet Union had changed sufficiently that there was no possibility of returning to the Communist Party dictatorship of the past, which essentially was the goal of Gorbachev’s opponents in the CPSU.
It is 20 years since the attempted coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It failed, but new BBC interviews underline how fragile his hold on power had become - and how quickly and informally the eventual decision to disband the USSR was taken.
The Soviet Union’s disintegration is the history of a red tape society’s collapse. Experts in Russia and the West fear what they could unearth by studying this phenomenon. They might have to address the possibility that a similar process could emerge in other countries.
The Soviet regime died long before the Soviet Union collapsed as a geographical notion. I would say in 1989, when Gorbachev’s policies went from reforming the communist system to transforming it. This started something different, something un-Soviet and un-communist.
It was true that several tens of thousands of Muscovites were at the White House to show solidarity with Yeltsin and defend it. But this was a tiny proportion of the capital’s population. If everyone else was going about their normal business without protest, could the coup have succeeded?
The growing outright rivalry between the United States and China gives Russia more foreign policy weight, enabling it to assume the role of a balancer. So far it has been doing so rather skillfully. Today it may participate in a joint naval exercise with China that Beijing positions as outwardly anti-American. But tomorrow it can team up with the naval forces of the Old World.
Richard Beeston, one of the leading foreign affairs writers in contemporary British journalism and a Member of the Valdai Club, passed away on May 19 2013 aged 50.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is one of the most important foreign policy initiatives taken by Russia along with five other countries. Both Russia and China want to reduce the threat of separatism and western influence in the region. Emergence of SCO provoked new international order.
Iran has made varying degrees of progress down the tracks—enrichment, weaponization and delivery system—needed to have a viable nuclear weapon. How far will it proceed? One option is to build a bomb and, to show the world its nuclear prowess, conduct a test. But that option poses real risks for the Iranian government.
