The document, which may well be the first attempt to conceptualize current developments, offers several different structures for a new world order.
A roundtable discussion of a Valdai Club report based on the summary of the club’s 11th annual meeting “The World Order: New Rules or No Rules?” held in Sochi in October 2014, took place on March 11 in Moscow.
“The report, which has been presented today, covers all the main issues pertaining to current political developments. Of course, it does not answer all questions, for it’s impossible to embrace the unembraceable. But it is certainly a very interesting paper. It presents a broad picture of the ongoing global change and the changing role of the state and the main political actors.” – Andrei Bystritsky, chairman of the Council of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club.
The roundtable participants praised the report as an important event on the international intellectual stage. The document, which may well be the first attempt to conceptualize current developments, offers several different structures for a new world order. Participant of the discussion, professor of political science at the Université Paris XII Val de Marne and the University of Rennes Yvan Blot noted that even if the report is not very optimistic, but it is quite realistic.
“The world is not a given, but a fragile substance that must be protected.” – Andrei Sushentsov, Valdai Club’s expert.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the co-editor of the report and Chairman of the Valdai Club’s Research Council, pointed to some of the report’s key elements. The first is that events taking place in the modern world challenge the state as an institution. “The challenges created by globalization are generating problems that hinder the operation [of the state] and internal governance amid the external chaos,” Lukyanov said.
The second is that the idea of dismantling or restructuring international institutions is absolutely invalid. The authors of the report believe that the G20 is the best possible model of governance in the current situation. It is a new international institution without an established hierarchy but with a large economic and political potential. “In our opinion, discussing economic issues without any reference to politics is no longer appropriate or conforming to modern ideas,” Fyodor Lukyanov said in conclusion.
The participants in the roundtable discussion agreed that a successful operation of international and other institutions is directly connected to the issue of leadership.
“A leader needs an infrastructure. A leader needs a way for his or her actualization. When we talk about multilateral institutions, we are still talking about leadership and, paradoxical as this may seem, the leadership of nation states.” – Artyom Malgin, member of the Valdai Club’s Research Council.
Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, who took part in the discussion via Skype, pointed to an asymmetry that developed in international relations after perestroika. He also urged the revival of the Yalta principles, renunciation of the US hegemony and the start of constructive cooperation.
“The issue of global alternatives boils down to correlation between Western and non-Western values. It concerns the development of historical civilizational units. Global alternatives are a crucial element that will determine the world’s future. The new world is a world based on power and a clash of values, with elements of hands-on management.” – Oleg Barabanov, Valdai Club’s expert.
Andrei Bystritsky, chairman of the Council of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, praised the timely publication of the report and said the issue of correlation between economic and political spaces would feature prominently at a panel discussion, Economic Interdependence vs. Political Unilateralism, which will be held during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
In addition, the Valdai Club plans to hold an international conference, Europe-Asia: Towards a New Energy Security Architecture, in cooperation with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin in April 2015. The leading Russian and foreign representatives of the energy industry, including Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Secretary General of Energy Charter Secretariat Urban Rusnak and director of Conflicts Forum Alastair Crooke, as well as the chief executives of leading foreign energy companies, are expected to attend.
The XI Annual Valdai Discussion Club Meeting Participants' Report is available on the link below:
http://valdaiclub.com/publication/75900.html
