Leadership and Decentralization in the International System

         Over the years since the invasion of Iraq, US international preponderance has been steadily declining. On one hand, this undermined America’s ability to exercise effective international leadership. On the other hand, in search for a new “dangerous rival” to unite the West (the overwhelming terrorist threat was no longer credible), American and European policymakers pointed to Russia which has been gaining influence as an exporter of strategic energy resources. Russia’s weakness was a major pillar of the early post-bipolar international system. This explains why a stronger Russia implodes the system and precipitates its painful transformation. This transformation is accelerated by US policymakers’ miscalculation. They failed to adequately estimate the implications of a strategic triad of preventive action, democratization and “regime change” for international stability. By attacking Iraq and aggressively pursuing nuclear proliferators, Washington has bred “alliances of tacit resistance” across the Middle East, Central Eurasia and Latin America. US’ ability to achieve its goals has been reduced by attempts of smaller states in these regions to balk at or openly oppose US power. Further limits on the freedom of foreign policy maneuvering available to American and European governments are placed by the growing Islamic and Asian diasporas in their countries.

State and Corporations in the Strategy of Global Competitiveness

         Among three types of relationships between the government and businesses, two are based on a strong role of the state in shaping industrial policies and promoting the global competitiveness of national companies. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon model of government non-interference into business operations, European and Asian strategies imply, correspondingly, the building of public-private partnerships or the blurring of distinction between private and public interests. In the absence of both sound political and legal institutions and globally competitive national business champions, Russia needs an active state policy to facilitate the emergence and strengthen corporations capable of building transnational partnerships. Instead of protecting whole branches of the economy, the government should single out effectively managed high-tech companies that can serve as centers of crystallization for regional productions clusters. These companies should be protected domestically and receive support in expanding their international operations. Given the high competition on the international consumer electronics market, Russia should focus rather on such sectors as aerospace, oil production or sophisticated medical equipment. Such strategy should be complemented with encouraging foreign investment in the knowledge-based industries. The government should also demand advanced technology transfer by transnational investors to their Russian partners.

Social Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy

         Active social policy is an indispensable means of raising the competitiveness of an advanced economy. Apart from its traditional healthcare, educational, environmental and other components, an effective social policy in contemporary world includes measures to expand the availability of information and communication technologies within a country’s society. Such technologies allow to better meet the needs of an individual, open new vistas in the search for jobs, educational, medical and other services. In making informational and communication technologies available to its population, Russia is lagging far behind the United States – the world’s leader in the quality and scope of info-communications infrastructure. The American economy has also demonstrated the benefits of fostering the employment of social groups previously considered “productively useless". By promoting the concept of “personal responsibility” for one’s family’s well-being and simultaneously providing new types of job and educational opportunities, the US government and major employers have been able to focus the policy of social solidarity on the segments of population totally incapable of productive labor. An effective social policy requires a clear-cut gender dimension. As a showcase, the US economy employs over 80% of women with children under the age of 18 and 84% of single (widowed, divorced) women with children under the same age..

Stability of International Alliances: the Case of CIS

         The prominent methodological and conceptual tools for studying the factors of stability and effectiveness of international unions have been traditionally provided by International Political Economy (IPE) and Political Economics (PS). The former is a branch of international relations theory, whereas the latter draws heavily on neoclassical economics. For the time being, each school tries to expand the purview of its own methodology and theoretical insights largely ignoring those of its potentially complementary counterpart. Both disciplines, however, address the same four broad issue areas: collective action and “free rider” problems; distribution of power within a union; influence of intrastate systems of governance on the stability of a union; and the impact of lobby groups, international bureaucracies and epistemic communities on this stability. Stability and effective functioning of a union usually do not go hand-in-hand. Moreover, they are often mutually exclusive. This general observation may explain why, in the absence of any headway in substantial integration, the Commonwealth of Independent States has demonstrated a surprising ultimate robustness in the face of botched attempts by members states to withdraw from the CIS. Its activities have a significant symbolic value for the elites in the former Soviet states. Semi-democratic and semi-authoritarian governments of CIS states use the Commonwealth to legitimize their governance style shared by partner countries. In addition, before 2005 the attractiveness of the Commonwealth resulted from subsidized energy supplies to its members from Russia.

Russia Outside the World Society

         The Westphalian system of sovereign nation-states is giving way to a transnational community based on the values of openness, human rights, efficient government and fair distribution of the national income. The new “world society” system is spreading unevenly across the globe with some regions and states already “fully immersed” and others – wrestling with the tasks of adaptation or stuck at an earlier stage of traditional nation-building. All world society members encounter stiff resistance on the part of inefficient bureaucracies, military establishments as well as political and security apparatuses. These groups cynically exploit the sense of uncertainty and general ignorance among their countries’ populations of the benefits of participation in the world society. Nevertheless, large economic and social forces, such as transnational corporations, cosmopolitan academic or business elites, realize how much they stand to win from the blurring of traditional sovereignty, new ways of conflict prevention and rejection of the revolutionary logic of transformation. The emerging universal criteria used in assessing the overall success of political elites reveal vast disparities in the efficiency of political and bureaucratic governance across the globe. The world society core – namely, the countries of North America, European Union as well as Japan – form a gigantic magnet capable of tearing some weaker states into parts. Faced with controversial pressures from three powerful poles – the world society core, China and the Islamic world – Russia will soon need to make an ultimate choice unless it is prepared to take the risk of eventual dismemberment.

Efficiency Assessment Criteria in Foreign Policy Studies

European Idea in the East: Testing by China

Philosophy of International Relations and Global Studies

PERSONA GRATA

Images and Personalities

The Diplomatic Academy’s Long-Awaited Luck

«Russophobia» in America

The World and the West in Russian Political Studies

SCRIPTA MANENT

Reviews

A Think Tank and a Gentlemen’s Club

Boundless War and Boundless Peace

Will America Follow the Fate of Goliath?

Dreaming of a Liberal Hegemony

A Theory of International Organization

Inoculated by Imported Democracy

Political Ecology and International Law

A Virtual "Triangle"

IN MEMORIAM

Yuri Pavlovich Davydov (1936–2006)

In brevi

A POTENTIA AD ACTUM

New doctorships

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