Volume 4, 1999, № 4, Fall - Problems of Globalization

Volume 4, 1999, № 4, Fall

		Table of contents

Contents and Summaries

Yurii Fyodorov
A Critical Challenge for Russia
It remains to be seen whether the Russian elite is capable of meeting the challenges of globalization and, relatedly, whether Russia will be included in the most important trends of the modern world or left to languish on the sidelines. For now, it is quite clear that current Russian policies fail to meet the demands of globalization, and that the country will suffer the consequences. In the face of globalization, the factors once deemed critical prerequisites for Russia’s rebirth-territorial size, geographic location, huge reserves of natural resources, a well-trained and quiescent labor force-have become increasingly irrelevant. Instead, factors of primary importance are the capability for technological, economic and social innovation; the ability to effectively operate in a transnational environment; intellectual, economic and political freedom; and the readiness to cooperate with the world’s leading nations. Without the activation of all of these factors, even Russia’s relatively developed scientific and technological capabilities are unlikely to pull the country out of the current crisis.

Alexey Bogaturov
The Takeover Syndrome in International Affairs
The key source of tensions in international affairs today is the inclination of "global society" (post-industrial Western democracies) to spontaneously grow and dominate the entire international arena, irrespective of the existence of other constituent states. Two points of "globalization theory" are most important and most questionable: • the assumption that the US-style Western political and economic model will inevitably triumph worldwide; • the idea that the ongoing expansion of "global society," given its current form and scale, is a progressive phenomenon. To view historical-political evolution as a linear process is to invite criticism. The world’s structure can best be conceived of as a conglomerate of disparate, autonomous enclaves, with "global society" being just one among these. Clearly, the enclaves interact, but it is not necessarily the case that one will absorb the rest. In the realm of international relations, these enclaves can remain side-by-side indefinitely and retain their distinctive internal structures, while still forming a separate collective identity by virtue of their external contours. It is through this sort of arrangement that "modern" and "traditionalist" enclaves have coexisted for two and even three centuries within such conglomerative societies as Russia, China, Japan and India. Thus, any view of globalization as a linear, single-vector process of the West’s expansion into the "non-West" is incomplete and unsatisfactory.

Vasily Mikheev
The Logic of Globalization and Russia’s Interests
As a spontaneous trend in world history, globalization is manifest in the growing economic and political interdependence of the world’s countries and regions. Interdependence is increasing to such a degree that it has become possible and even necessary to raise questions about the establishment of a single global legal environment and universal economic and political governing bodies. Since goals are put forward by the political leaderships of different nations, globalization leads to "personified" international relations. This creates new international policy players, apart from national, transnational, and transgovernmental actors-specifically, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private firms, and individuals, each with their own interests. In considering the relationship between globalization and regionalization trends, it is important to differentiate between "open" and "closed" regionalism. The first type is compatible with globalization, and is simply a regional manifestation of this process; the second is a result of regional "self-sufficiency" and is antithetical to the globalization drive. Further, as a research concept, globalization can be used as the methodological basis for a critical appraisal of the idea of a multi-polar world and as a means to develop an appropriate economic strategy for Russia. Globalization and the personification of international relations logically lead to a One World concept-something that is still a remote possibility, but one which should remain a distant goal. It is vitally important that Russia, with due consideration of both the new opportunities and dangers of globalization, be fully involved in the creation of a unified economy which is an integral part of the coming One World.

Klaus Segbers
A Patchwork in the Making: Opportunities and Risks of Globalization in Russia
(Translated from German)

Vladimir Maksimenko
Is "Globalization" Under Way?
The "global world" can be so called largely because of the following three factors: • the revolution in information technology has integrated communications (even though the world remains culturally divided and, in fact, continues to become even more so); • the unprecedented boom of international capital markets has given rise to the phenomenon of global financial bubbles; • the revolution in military affairs has led to global deployment of the most modern weapons systems. Trends to globalize information systems, financial markets and "smart" defense technologies have been accompanied by the spread of an ideology of "globalism." It is the most powerful "ism" of today, one which has substantially crowded out ideologies like liberalism and communism. Two vivid examples of globalism-related dangers are the international aftermath of the 1999 war in the Balkans and NATO’s new doctrine which allows for out-of-area activities. The topics of global governance and global government, persistently debated over recent years, call into question such basic principles of international order as the sovereignty of the nation state. The introduction of global government, functioning through the use of the most advanced telecommunication technologies, obviously includes the danger of such a system becoming so comprehensively totalitarian as to dwarf all totalitarian regimes of the past.

Victor Kuznetsov
The "Golden Billion" and the Rest of Mankind
The structure of the world economy today continues to be far removed from the liberal model of "constructive competition." Likewise, it is not conducive to the equalization of living standards across developed and less developed countries and sometimes even fixes consumption patterns in the latter group at intolerably low levels. In a number of cases, the trend toward economic integration has been hampered by the inevitable ethnic, political and ideological differences inherent in the family of nations. Regardless of whether the globalization process is driven by economics, ideology, politics or civil society itself, the changes in the world community that globalization engenders require prudence, patience and consistency on the part of political and public actors. The subjective opinions of political leaders and their level of judiciousness and pragmatism are of no less consequence in the continuing globalization process than is the spontaneous evolution of international business practices.

Marat Cheshkov
Globalization: Essence, Status, Prospects
Following the two decades of its evolution, "globalistics" as a field of knowledge about global trends remains split among a number of sciences, each one having its own perception of globalization. This does little to counter "globalistic mythology," a particular set of stereotypes which persist in the public mind. Two myths are at odds: one is the mainstream view of globalization as a predetermined process aimed at erasing all differences between the world’s countries and peoples, identical to Westernization or Americanization; the other, conversely, views globalization as a reversible trend, having as its alternative the emergence of national and cultural self-identities and resistance to the drive toward Americanization. In order to develop the preconditions for a comprehensive vision of globalization, and to eventually demythologize this field of knowledge, it is necessary to integrate the disparate schools of thought and develop both a common methodology and common definitions. Based on the above premises and the ideas of Erikh Yanch, Vladimir Vernadsky and Nikita Moiseev, the author offers his own concept of the global community. At the close of the 20th century, the global community has seen a change of its historical types: the modern-industrial model has given way to an emerging information-globalist one. It is clear that globalization has not yet run its course and is in no danger of exhausting itself. Although this process is an imperative for mankind, its unfolding is likely to see new variants emerge. Though globalization does lead to a more homogenized world, it nonetheless runs in parallel with trends bolstering ethno-cultural and confessional differences worldwide. Still, this tendency towards increasing heterogeneity will not necessarily lead to the disintegration of the whole since elaboration of mechanisms and principles (international organizations, international law, universal human values) continues to streamline and harmonize the disparate elements of the global whole. Certain states will r

Yuri Kulitsky
The Virtual Empire Builder
A profile of George Soros and his creation, the Open Society Institute.

Vadim Tsymburski
Geopolitics for the "Eurasian Atlantis"
For post-imperial Russia to survive, it needs to tackle the following two key problems. The first problem is setting the nation’s geo-economic strategy in a time when the string of former Soviet territories in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia have been opened up to West European and North Atlantic actors operating in disregard of Russia. The second problem is the assurance of Russia’s security in the Central Asian and Caspian region where Russians are confronted with a three-fold challenge: China, Taliban-style Wahhabism, and the "Eurasian-transit-corridor" project, the purpose of which is to enable a Western presence in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The author believes that the solution to these problems is in cooperation between China, Iran and Russia provided they agree to view Central Asia as a common strategic rear area where they will oppose infiltration by any other power, be it from the Middle East or from the West via the Caucasus. A potential geo-economic base for rapprochement between the three powers should be their continental transit oligopoly-joint control over transit routes connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the West. Russia’s interests would be well served by the convergence of these transit routes in southern Siberia and the southern Urals, in the form of a Russian-supported "Pacific geo-economic bridgehead within the mainland." Such a strategy would provide an alternative to the country’s current excessive dependence on the united Europe’s economy by setting Russia up as the western frontier of the Asia-Pacific region’s geo-economic space.

Yuri Pivovarov, Andrey Fursov
The Russian System and Reforms
The Russian System is a paradigm allowing one to find the algorithm for or at least some regularities of Russian history over the past five centuries. The course of Russian history has primarily been determined by the interaction of the following three basic components of the Russian System: Vlast’ (power with no tolerance for any checks or balances on itself); the Populyatsia (the populace, which has lost its social and political capacities over the centuries and become only the object of politics); Lishny Chelovek (the superfluous person, referring to social groups or individual persons not included in either the Vlast’ or the Populyatsia and making up the nucleus of the anti-Vlast’ force-those seeking to seize power, without being part of any power structure). The core component of the Russian System is the Vlast’, which rules with the help of social groups or interests that are close to them. Originally, those groups were the boyarstvo (nobility), followed by the dvoryanstvo (gentry), and finally, the chinovnichestvo (bureaucracy-functionaries). As each of these political "in-groups" became overly influential, the Vlast’ stepped in to eliminate or, at least, incapacitate them so as to prevent their emergence as an independent social class. One of the most important trends in Russian history has been the continuing numerical growth of the political "in-group," accompanied by the steady erosion in the individual wealth of its members. Under communism, this dual process reached its peak. Generally speaking, the communist order was the logical culmination of the Russian System’s evolution. Communism merely modified the Vlast’ as the principal actor of Russian history. To date, Russia’s most successful reforms have been those aimed at improving the Russian System itself and, in particular, its Vlast’ component. However, reforms of this kind do not tackle the core historic problems facing Russia and keeping it from growing into a "normal" modern society. Any attempt to find a solution to those problems is unlikely

Letters to the Editor

Yuri Igritsky
The Nation State and the Onslaught of Globalization

Ernest Kochetov
Considerations of the Globalized World

Book Reviews

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