Valdai Club

Even if globalisation is waning, and even if the old world order has been irrevocably scrapped, few large non-Western countries are prepared to sever ties with the West for the sake of Russia regardless of their own revisionist ambitions, writes Valdai Club Programe Director Oleg Barabanov.

On June 6, 2022, Moscow will host the first Russian-Pakistani expert dialogue between the Valdai Discussion Club and the analytical centre Pakistan House – International Think Tank. Previously, the Valdai Club has repeatedly participated in expert events in Pakistan, and experts from various Pakistani analytical centres  have taken part in Valdai Club events, such as the Club's Annual Meeting, and the Middle East and Central Asian Conferences.

The issues of democracy and its interpretation are now among the most acute in international relations. They are closely related to the issue of values ​​and value policy. The key disagreement revolves around whether or not the perception of democracy should be universalist, common to all countries, and based on Western values.

A lot depends on how clearly peaceful interaction in Central Asia and around it will be re-established, in a way that’s acceptable for all parties, writes Yuri Vasilyev, Special correspondent for the Vzglyad business newspaper. There is one of the main questions for Uzbekistan as one of the main partners of Russia in the region: will the systemic reforms in the country allow it to overcome the dependence of its citizens on systems that facilitate fast payments from abroad?

There are global challenges in the world, but there are no universal answers. We are entering a new historical era — the world is materially connected, and in this sense, global, but ideologically polymorphic and non-universal. Global institutions are not effective enough, but national governments, especially small and medium-sized states, cannot do everything themselves. This only increases interest in regional cooperation, writes Valdai Club expert Ivan Safranchuk.

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).

Historically, transport links have played the most important role in consolidating geopolitical spaces, nation states, and groups of states. The oldest examples of statehood arose along rivers, so rivers almost never served as natural boundaries. As humankind evolved, it enhanced the natural capabilities for interconnection between regions by building roads, and in the 19th century, rail, and then air services in the 20th century.

The creation of this platform, proposed in the T20 policy brief, co-authored by the Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik, would allow for large pools of investment to be directed toward facilitating the development and diversity of the G20 economies, particularly in critical sectors such as technology, human capital development, healthcare, and infrastructure.

As the centrality of global institutions is weakened and the nation states are reasserting their powers, the in-between layer of global governance (between global institutions and nation states), namely regional integration arrangements, is undergoing massive changes.