This paper is the outcome of the experimental project titled “Valdai: New Generation,” which brought together young creative but accomplished researchers from Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Italy, and Indonesia. For several months, five working groups involved in the project collaborated on preparing chapters of this group paper covering high-profile stories of contemporary international politics and the global economy. The participants themselves determined each chapter’s subject matter.
In their group paper, the participants of the Valdai: New Generation project presented their own vision of the most important trends and processes of global and regional importance that are exerting a direct impact on the modern world and the formation of what is commonly referred to in broad expert circles as the new world order. This order, if it ever emerges from the chaos of the present time, will not resemble any previously existing order that we know from the scientific literature primarily because it will not rely on the exclusive capabilities of a single centre in the form of a single major country or a group of countries laying out rules, institutions and international legal norms for the rest of the world. It will be largely a mosaic.
The authors’ hypotheses, findings and observations have been summarised in five chapters that make up the paper; each chapter carries a narrative of its own, which is in line with our goal of not putting the findings of the writing teams within the framework of a single theoretical scheme. In this sense, the authors act as historians of modern times and relatively objectively describe ongoing developments in international politics and the economy, but do not attempt to set a general trajectory of events. This trajectory forms from individual major phenomena highlighted in each chapter of the paper. The ambitious reader is offered a chance to understand and figure out for themselves how to navigate the diverse space of international life at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. In a section of the paper its authors note, “the creation and functioning of world order is a dynamic process, not a one-off event.” It appears that the international expert community’s understanding of the new reality will be exactly the same.
Fyodor Lukyanov, Oleg Barabanov, Anton Bespalov, Andrei Sushentsov, and Ivan Timofeev were highly instrumental in helping organise the participating creative groups’ activities. Without their caring attitude and close supervision, the project participants wouldn’t have been able to cope with the tasks at hand so well. The compilers of the paper and the academic director of the project also express gratitude to all staff members of the Club, especially Irina Yakovenko that helped them put their work on the systemic basis.
From the foreword by the academic editor
About the Authors
Javairyah Aatif
Digital Media and Political Information Specialist, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad
Aleksei Chikhachev
Associate Professor, Department of European Studies, School of International Relations, Saint Petersburg State University; Research Fellow, Center for Strategic Studies, IWMES HSE University
Rahul Gupta
Senior Research Fellow, PhD Candidate, Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Matvey Kiselev
Deputy Director for Legal Affairs and GR, Tyumen Prospects LLC
Nubara Kuliyeva
Research-assistant, Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, Visiting Lecturer, HSE University; Associate Researcher of the Caucasus Studies Sector, Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, RAS
Alla Levchenko
Lecturer, MGIMO University
Rupal Mishra
PhD Candidate, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Vitor Moura
Master’s Candidate, Tsinghua University
Peng Bo
Director, Shanghai Center for RimPac Strategic and International Studies
Emanuel Pietrobon
Vice President, MasiraX
Dmitry Polyakov
Secretary-referent, Embassy of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Nikita Ryabtchenko
Researcher, International Relations and World Development Studies
Sellita
Lecturer, Bakrie University
Mikhail Shatrov
Master’s student, MGIMO University
Joko Susilo
Knowledge Manager, NALAR Institute
Anna Sytnik
Associate Professor at Saint Petersburg State University
Leyla Turayanova
Research Associate, Centre for the Indian Ocean Region Studies, IMEMO RAS;
Alexander Ulanov
Vice-Rector for Development, Innovation and Digitalization, Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
Arsen Usenov
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Strategic Analysis and Prognosis under the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic
University
Boris Zabolotsky
Professor at the Federal University for the Integration of Lusophony Brazil and Africa (UNILAB), PhD in Political Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Ladislav Zemánek
Non-Resident Research Fellow, China-CEE Institute
Zhang Huimin
Ph.D Candidate, School of Politics and International Relations, East China Normal University
Milana Živanović
Senior Research Associate, Institute of Contemporary History of Serbia
Under the general editorship of Timofei Bordachev
