Valdai Club

Africa, beyond being a spectator to how external actors lay blame on each other or seek to take credit for their ‘humanitarian’ efforts to civilize the continent, believes there are many other issues that these countries should pay more attention to. This is where the role of higher education institutions comes in.

In order to achieve maximum benefits in economic cooperation within the framework of BRICS, it is necessary to involve the private sector as actively as possible; particularly through business associations of both BRICS and partner institutions such as the SCO and the EAEU, writes Valdai Club expert Sergey Mikhnevich.

A multipolar world has long become a reality. We are already living in a new world order, the contours of which we are not fully aware of. An adequate understanding of the new order requires a clear understanding of what exactly we mean by a multipolar world, and what kind of multipolarity we are dealing with today. This new world can be called “asynchronous multipolarity,” writes Valdai Club Programme Director Ivan Timofeev.

Interaction between Russia and China on the development of the Arctic region is becoming one of the important areas of Russian-Chinese relations of “comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction entering a new era”. China now has a historical chance to become Russia’s new priority partner in the implementation of Arctic projects, writes Lyudmila Filippova, Senior Researcher at the ‘Russia, China, World’ Centre of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Russia and India share a strategic relationship built on trust over a period of time. The current uncertain times call for strong efforts to retain this trust and build pathways to take forward the mutually beneficial relationship to a new level, writes Pawan Anand, a Distinguished Fellow with the USI of India, and a Mentor at the National Defence College.

Suddenly inflation is back, forcing investors to wake up from a dream they thought would last much longer. In the near future, this awakening risks leading to the bursting of speculative bubbles. Bubbles in real estate, money and finance, produced by speculation on commodities can explode when the ample liquidity runs out drastically, writes Valdai Club expert Dario Velo.

The de-synchronized and divergent processes of a worsening economic situation in Syria on the one hand, and the diplomatic normalization with the regional actors on the other are the most important issues to look at when assessing whether Syria is on the way out of its decade-long crisis, writes Alexey Khlebnikov, a Middle East expert with the Russian International Affairs Council.

This is undoubtedly the first time in many years that the world economy has been threatened by three crises, each quite distinct in its origins, but whose consequences are intertwined, writes Valdai Club expert Jacques Sapir.

Currently, great emphasis is being placed on the technical modernisation of the Chinese economy, the development of a new type of urbanisation, the creation of smart cities, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and mechanisation. At the same time, the budget includes significant funds to accelerate green and low-carbon development, green initiatives and environmental protection.

Entire histories of individual countries and peoples that are now on the “wrong” side for one view or another are being crossed out and become a direct target for “cancel culture”. Thus, here we see the struggle between the universalist and the national concept, not only in the sphere of identity and patterns of behaviour, but also in relation to history, and within the emerging universalist canon of rules, where national historical identities can become victims, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Oleg Barabanov.