Russia in Global Affairs

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RSCI Scopus

No. 4

2014 October/December

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Contents

About Eternal Issues in Real Time

Fyodor A. Lukyanov

Cold War Reset

The Watershed Year: Interim Results

Sergei A. Karaganov

For a Good Long While

Dmitry V. Suslov

Domination of the Dollar: Are There Any Alternatives?

Sergey Afontsev

Hybrid Politics

Testing a “New Look”

Mikhail Barabanov

The Last Post-Soviet War

Sergey Minasyan

Recognition Is Not a Dogma

Sergey M. Markedonov

A Return of Barbarism

Nikolai Silayev

Social Decomposition

Listening to the Music of the Revolution?

Alexander Aksenyonok, Irina Zvyagelskaya

Tenuous Wariness

Nikita Mendkovitch

Political Economics

The Northern Window to the Global World

Igor A. Makarov

A Troublesome Partnership

Alexandr Gabuev

A Mega Deal Amid a Relationship Crisis

Evgeny Vinokurov

Identity Building

The Russian Elite’s View of Global Politics

Eduard Ponarin, Boris Sokolov

“Spiritual Bonds” as State Ideology

A Year of Frustrated Hopes

Alexei I. Miller

Articles

About Eternal Issues in Real Time

The events of this year have raised questions about fundamental concepts of international relations – War and Peace, the State, and International Law. These reflections evoke an especially philosophical mood in contrast to what is happening in world politics today, where all actors obviously lack a long-term vision and strategy.

Fyodor A. Lukyanov

The Watershed Year: Interim Results

Today Russia is confronted by the West which is largely demoralized by its own blunders and no longer a source of moral supremacy and appeal for most people in the world. Sided with Moscow is the rising “non-West” that comprises the majority of countries and most dynamic economies.

Sergei A. Karaganov

For a Good Long While

The Russian-U.S. confrontation is amplifying an even larger trend in global development – the danger of the world’s division into the “Greater West” and the “Eurasian non-West.” There is the impression that the geography of the division resembles the dividing line between “continental” and “island” countries in classical geopolitics.

Dmitry V. Suslov

Domination of the Dollar: Are There Any Alternatives?

The possibilities of club monetary interaction mechanisms are very modest as they do not replace but supplement global mechanisms. Nevertheless, they deserve attention and support. Equally important is the fact that such mechanisms may have side effects, namely, general shifts in the structure of global economic governance.

Sergey Afontsev

Testing a “New Look”

What has been done since 2008 can probably be considered the most ambitious, consistent and effective military reform in Russia. The decisive turn from the traditional mobilizational army allowed Russia to create permanent and high readiness forces well adapted for operation in the post-Soviet region.

Mikhail Barabanov

The Last Post-Soviet War

The Ukrainian crisis in a way resembles wars of late feudalism in Europe, with private armies formed of assorted mercenaries and retired military of most diverse ethnic, ideological and social affiliations.

Sergey Minasyan

Recognition Is Not a Dogma

The “Minsk process” has created a chance for Donbass to become a new proving ground for unrecognized statehood. Different options, ranging from Chechnya and Serbian Krajina to the Transnistrian experience, may be possible. Or the region may build a unique Donbass model.

Sergey M. Markedonov

A Return of Barbarism

Absence of a state entails a lot of trouble, but it also offers certain advantages, the main of which is that there is no need to pay for a complex and very costly institutional system. This relieves the ruling groups of a tremendous burden of chores and gives them a free hand.

Nikolai Silayev

Listening to the Music of the Revolution?

If the international community fails to establish acceptable and understandable rules of international behavior in the context of “revolutionary challenges,” the world may slip into a new round of global confrontation, which will be caused not by systemic contradictions but by vain disregard for real common threats.

Alexander Aksenyonok, Irina Zvyagelskaya

Tenuous Wariness

Central Asian countries should be prepared for any scenario and should try to prevent the most dangerous upheavals in Afghanistan. In particular, they can strengthen their own defense capabilities and establish close cooperation with Kabul to combat regional terrorism.

Nikita Mendkovitch

The Northern Window to the Global World

The importance of the Northern Sea Route is not in trying to make it a new Suez Canal, but in giving a boost to the development of service industries (mainly high-tech industries) and adjacent regions, as well as in opening one more window of opportunity for Russia’s integration into the global world.

Igor A. Makarov

A Troublesome Partnership

Fettered by Western sanctions, major Russian companies are looking for new opportunities in East Asia, pinning most of their hopes on China. And yet, private businesses and top managers of state-run companies are talking about numerous problems and risks.

Alexandr Gabuev

A Mega Deal Amid a Relationship Crisis

Today even raising the question of an economic integration agreement between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union seems a non-starter. Recent economic sanctions have severely hurt economic cooperation between the two political entities. Yet the foundations of any new institution are frequently set out in times of crisis.

Evgeny Vinokurov

The Russian Elite’s View of Global Politics

Although the bipolar Cold-War-style mentality is still quite widespread among the rulers of Russian society, it is not a fundamental feature of their global viewpoint. Rather, Russia’s sense of being insulted and disappointed after it failed to join the “premier league” is behind this mindset.

Eduard Ponarin, Boris Sokolov

“Spiritual Bonds” as State Ideology

In the conditions of real confrontation with external “others” the modality of patriotic ideas is changing: what earlier had a shade of alarmism is now presented as a pressing challenge, to which Russia gives a proper response, thus affirming its independence.

A Year of Frustrated Hopes

Today historical memory policy is facing its deepest crisis of the post-Soviet era. It is quite possible that in the historical perspective 2014 will be perceived as the beginning of the long process of mobilizing civil society on a platform that will be not only anti-liberal, but also nationalist.

Alexei I. Miller