Russia in Global Affairs

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RSCI Scopus

No. 2

2010 April/June

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Contents

The Changing Reality and Lagging Mentality

Fyodor A. Lukyanov

Global Security

The Euro-Atlantic Region: Equal Security for All

Sergei V. Lavrov

Global Zero and Common Sense

Sergei A. Karaganov

"Resetting": Interim Results

«Hard Power» Imperative

Sergei Kortunov

Resetting and Disjunction

Victor Kremenyuk

CFE: Overcoming the Impasse

Uneasy Neighborhood

The Dilapidation of Authoritarianism

Alexander V. Lukin

How to Make Peace with Neighbors

Nikolai Silayev

Avenue of Independence

Shadows of the Past

Russia: Politics and History

Alexei I. Miller

Should We Fear the Past?

Alexander Barsenkov

Facets of Modernization

Innovations and Investment:Two Sides of the Same Coin

Vladimir Yevtushenkov

Climate Change and Economy

Boris Porfiriev

Energy Security Without Panic

Tatiana A. Romanova

Articles

The Changing Reality and Lagging Mentality

The world system is in motion, and relations between countries are changing rapidly, as evidenced by the current developments in the post-Soviet space.

Fyodor A. Lukyanov

The Euro-Atlantic Region: Equal Security for All

The teamwork philosophy underlies Russia’s foreign policy. Its top priority is creating favorable external conditions for comprehensive modernization of the country, diversification of the economy and its transition to an innovation development model. We do not need confrontation and we will never opt for it.

Sergei V. Lavrov

Global Zero and Common Sense

The anti-nuclear movement is harmful. Firstly, it may result in the reduction of nuclear armaments to a dangerous minimum, as it opens the Pandora’s Box of negotiations over the reduction of non-strategic nuclear armaments. Secondly, it distracts from the search for new ways of setting peace and stability in the new world.

Sergei A. Karaganov

«Hard Power» Imperative

After the New START Treaty is ratified, it would be highly desirable to invite the U.S. leadership to enter into a broader politico-strategic dialogue than reductions of tactical nuclear weapons. To this end, Moscow could propose a joint search for ways to minimize risks stemming from the objectively existing situation of mutual nuclear deterrence.

Sergei Kortunov

Resetting and Disjunction

A peacetime alliance is not contra-indicated either for the U.S. or Russia. In principle, they are capable of finding solutions to the existing and even future problems (such as the development of resources in the Arctic region) and creating an effective mechanism of interaction. These solutions would help strengthen the rationality of world politics and the world order.

Victor Kremenyuk

CFE: Overcoming the Impasse

Russia and the West have lost a great deal of trust in each other, and trust is proving hard to restore, the maintenance of existing arms control regimes such as CFE remains an important political objective, even if the military rationale behind their establishment at the end of the Cold War has largely vanished.

The Dilapidation of Authoritarianism

The recent revolution in Kyrgyzstan – the second in five years – and the bloodshed in the south of the country that followed it have cast doubts over the country’s viability as an independent state. There is yet another important factor: an outwardly solid authoritarian regime, one among many in the territory of the former Soviet Union, collapsed within a few days. This raises a more general question: Is this an exceptional case or does it open a new chapter in post-Soviet history?

Alexander V. Lukin

How to Make Peace with Neighbors

The normalization of Russian relations with neighbors is rather a steady trend, than a string of casual diplomatic successes. The question is what this normalization is all about “technologically,” so to say, and not from the standpoint of content. Is there a reason to say that this successful experience may furnish a solid basis for an overall strategy of building relations with neighbors west of the Russian border?

Nikolai Silayev

Avenue of Independence

For all the complexity and diversity of Russian interests in the neighboring country, an adequate model of relations between them requires that Moscow view Belarus as an independent state and an ally whose interests are not necessarily identical with Russia’s.

Russia: Politics and History

The ruinous consequences of history politics in Russia may be much tougher than in other countries: the weaker pluralism and democracy, the fewer opportunities society and the guild of historians have to resist history politics. If interference of politics in history continues to develop at such a fast rate and in the same vein as in the past two or three years, Russia will suffer a major setback.

Alexei I. Miller

Should We Fear the Past?

A meaningful conversation about Joseph Stalin makes sense only in the context of Russian history. However dramatic and intricate the latter might be in the 20th century, there is no way to cross out the industrial and cultural breakthroughs of the 1930s, the victory in World War II and the country’s reconstruction from postwar ruins between 1945 and 1953 amid conditions of a new threat. Whether anyone likes it or not, Stalin cannot be torn away from these obvious achievements.

Alexander Barsenkov

Innovations and Investment:Two Sides of the Same Coin

The obsession with grand scale projects is as damaging to the idea of innovative economic zones as the trend towards small-budget minimalism. For example, the projects to set up Science Towns provide for all kinds of measures – from improving the public transport infrastructure to developing pedestrian walkways in neighborhoods. Just one thing is missing: a program to build effective cooperation between research centers and private business companies.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov

Climate Change and Economy

In spite of the highly controversial picture of climate change, it is fairly clear that already in the near future all world countries will increasingly employ climate change as a pretext for shackling their counterparties and stimulating their own producers in the competition for a speedy transition to new technological systems in the economy.

Boris Porfiriev

Energy Security Without Panic

Re-economization of the EU’s energy security benefits both Russia and the EU, as politicization of the sphere leads but to an impasse. Still, we must be prepared for an activation of somewhat forgotten or yet incompletely shaped contradictions – the problems of legal approximation and liberalization, differing perceptions of reciprocity, and the dissimilarities in building dialogue between the private and public sectors.

Tatiana A. Romanova