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What is the role of ideas in modernization in general and in post-Soviet modernization in particular? There is no consensus among experts on the contribution of ideas to the building of new institutions and practices in various countries in various historical periods. They answer differently the question of whether ideas cause transformations or the other way around. However, when it comes to political, economic and social transformations in post-Soviet Russia, the prevailing view is that ideas were secondary to the interests of key players.
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a meeting on economic issues on Tuesday [April 14] by proposing to evaluate the new economic trends that have emerged because of the coronavirus pandemic. Russia’s economic situation is currently not all that rosy. After panic purchases of food and essential goods, Russians are switching to austerity [consumer habits], according to business surveys. That is not surprising: Many citizens expect either to lose their job or take a pay cut this year.
THE 20TH CENTURY went down in history as a century of ideologies and sharp confrontation of states belonging to different systems, the Soviet Union and the United States in the first place. The 21st century has already demonstrated a mounting geopolitical confrontation of great powers that drew international business interests into their whirlpool.
ROUNDTABLE A New Understanding of Strategic Stability WORLD ISSUES Global Crisis as a Trigger of Geoeconomic Transformations: Challenges for RussiaD. Evstafiev, A. Ilnitsky Big Business in a Multipolar WorldA. Borisov The Islamic Factor in the Middle East and North Africa: The “Re-lslamization” PhenomenonYe. Zelenev, O. Ozerov Formation of a Political Elite for Modern Iraq: American […]
Выборы на фоне Крыма: Электоральный цикл 2016-2018 гг. и перспективы политического транзита. Под ред. В. ФЕДОРОВА. М.: ВЦИОМ, 2018. 440 с. This review was first published in Russian in the journal Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya (Sociological Studies. 2019. No. 5, pp. 171-174; DOI: 10.31857/S013216250004974-4). Parliamentary and presidential elections are the highest points of a political cycle. Until […]
Tension around the Korean Peninsula is one of the main threats to international security. North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear and missile weapon systems has become a new serious factor in global strategic stability. Previously, during the cold war era, the only tool of control over strategic weapons was the relationship between Moscow and Washington. At present, the international situation has radically changed. New nuclear powers – India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea – regardless of whether or not the original five members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) acknowledge them as such, are not under the control of either Washington or Moscow or Beijing, acting at their own discretion, as they see fit.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF INTERVIEWS “No Positive Changes in Washington’s Policy Toward Russia”Sergey Ryabkov WORLD ISSUES Russian-Chinese Relations: A New Historical Stage of DevelopmentI. Morgulov The U.S. in Afghanistan: From Military-Political Euphoria to the Dilemma of Troop WithdrawalM. Konarovsky Can North Korean Nuclear Missile Crisis Be Resolved? (Read this article online for FREE)G. Ivashentsov Islamic Maximalism and Minimalism: […]
The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is the key issue at the talks on Brexit. An absence of Ireland’s only land border is its most amazing feature. The winding and twisting border of nearly 499 km long is not marked by pillars or barriers; there is no barbed wire or checkpoints. After the 2016 referendum on the withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU, the border issue moved to the fore in the relations between the UK and Ireland. When the UK leaves the European Union, the counties on both sides of the twisting border will become the frontier of the EU which will increase, at least theoretically, the possibility of political and economic crises and deeper conflicts in both countries.
ON THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Russian-Chinese Relations at the Start of a New Historical Stage of DevelopmentI. Morgulov The Golden Decade of Sino-Russian RelationsLi Hui Russia-China Partnership 2019: Strategic, Military-Political, and Economic ParametersS. Luzyanin Foreign Economic Relations of the People’s Republic of ChinaV. Portyakov POLITICS China, the United States, and […]