Valdai Club

For nearly a decade and a half now, the word “transformation” has arguably been the most popular term to describe the Middle Eastern developments, including transformation of societies and economies, political systems and institutions, foreign policies and international alliances, strategies pursued by non-state and state actors, and regional and global powers.


Cooperation between Russia and India has a strong foundation, and significant efforts have been made recently to ensure that interactions between them improve in quality and gain regulatory and institutional support. Nevertheless, more work remains to be done. This is a condensed version of the report. The full version will be available on the Valdai Club’s website in February 2025.

In the middle of the 20th century, the world was built from the top down, from the peak of the hierarchical pyramid down to its base. The new system will not be that consistent, but it will be far more democratic.

Even in the original five-country format, BRICS looked like a formidable energy conglomerate. It included the world’s largest hydrocarbons exporter (Russia) and the largest consumer of energy resources (China). After the expansion on January 1, 2024, the group emerged as a real energy giant.

The emergence, in 2022, of a large group of countries, which in the Russian foreign policy discourse is referred to as the “World Majority,” came as a most meaningful event in the modern-day international life.

The United States imposed its first sanctions against Iran back in 1979 when the Iranian revolutionaries seized the American embassy and took its diplomats hostage. However, only after 2010 the restrictions that Washington and its allies imposed on Tehran for advancing its nuclear programme had a devastating effect on the Iranian economy.

Russia-Africa relations have become more substantive and regular over the past year, with development strategies, plans, roadmaps and summit meetings, that have become regular despite the challenges and plans for annual Russia-Africa ministerial conferences. The range of the key Russian actors in Africa has changed, the list of Russia’s privileged African partners has been expanded and Russia’s contribution to the sovereignty and development of African countries has become more substantial. A system of Russian-African relations is gradually taking shape from chaos, dissonance and competing initiatives.

The study of diplomatic practices is crucial as the international order transitions from hegemony to polycentricity, intensifying rivalry between states. This paper represents a preliminary exploration of the training of international analysts and diplomatic personnel worldwide, conducted by MGIMO University. The contributors assert that the quality of diplomatic training holds significant importance in enabling nation-states to attain autonomy and agency in the evolving polycentric world order.

The multipolar landscape of 2040 will resemble a sandbox, offering people the state as just one among various available choices, albeit one that remains the most common.

Many developments that significantly impacted the destinies of the regional players, non-regional actors, and many people around the world have unfolded during the year that followed the publication of our paper titled “The Middle East and the Future of a Polycentric World” (February 2023).