Valdai Club

Authoritarianism vs. democracy has long been established as part of modern Western discourse, with political transitions supposed to move linearly from one to the other. The problem is that authoritarian regimes proper – rationally organized secular autocracies – are increasingly scarce and giving way to crisis-ridden governments or fundamentalist regimes. The “bench” of countries capable of instituting a democratic transition is dwindling rapidly. The “old democracies” are facing mounting dilemmas, and prospects for regimes in major powers like China or Russia are vague.

At the 13th Annual Meeting the Valdai Discussion Club holds a special session titled "What If… the Soviet Union Had Not Collapsed?" The Centenary of the October Revolution is approaching.

We propose to discuss a wide spectrum of problems, from technologies, which obviously affect the political agenda, to the transformation of the forms of democracy, from challenges and trends of economic globalization to the impact of the accelerating migration to the world order. In fact, our goal is to formulate a number of elements of the today's world landscape, which will play a key role in the formation of the future.

It is essential to remember that democracy is not just a technique of governance with certain attributes whose existence and quality is often used to gauge the extent of democratism as well as the capacity to act in the interests of the majority of the people, believes Russian philosopher and expert of the Valdai Club Boris Kapustin.

In international relations, Washington and Moscow operate according to different playbooks, hence their misunderstanding, which at times leads to diplomatic confrontation, believes John Mearsheimer, a prominent scholar of great power politics from the University of Chicago.

The Syrian crisis has become the next global “great game,” in which many of the world’s major powers are pursuing very different outcomes. The presence of outside powers complicates resolving the conflict, as every Syrian party must reconcile its goals with those of its patrons.

Given that neither the West nor Russia have anything of value left to win in Ukraine, rationality suggests that they should come to a reasonable agreement between themselves and then impose it on their respective Ukrainian proxies.

The thriving China-Russia relationship has given rise to questions as to whether they will form an axis. China does not deem the establishment of exclusive alliances or political blocs as a foreign policy option.