Political Science as a Metadisciplinary Matrix

Political Science, International Relations and Area Studies emerged in the Russian University system as independent and rapidly developing educational and research disciplines. However, recognition of their importance beyond the professional community remains far from universal. Therefore, Russian Universities are struggling to create training programmes, aimed to prepare specialists capable of dealing with various urgent issues of domestic politics and foreign policy. This task presumes careful study of rising challenges in the global system as w ell as advantages and shortcomings of the existing educational model in Russia. The current article seeks to identify major conditions, determining future prospects of teaching in international politics. The author claims that in recent decades three major transformations appear as crucial. First, the rise of New Modernity reflected the growing nonlinearity in societies. Second, political orders experience a continuous reshuffling after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Third, major centers of economic production are transferring to Asia. Russian tradition of Political thought opens wide opportunities for understanding these shifts. However, the professional community has to adapt to the new conditions and, first and foremost, cope with the existing gap between University studies and practice. This requires provdingstudents with methodological and other tools to conduct professional expertise of complex strategic interactions. The current reform of methodological organization of the educational process enables to solve this problem systematically through a specialized institution – federal University associations for educational methodology. In accordance with the reform, the renewed FUAEM incorporates separate, but interrelated disciplines – Political Science, International Relations and Area Studies. Bringing them together within a single institution does not presume their unification, but rather amobilization of intellectual and organizational resources.

1. Almond G.A. (1997). Politicheskaya nauka: istoriya distsipliny [Political Science: History of the Discipline]. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya. No. 6. P. 175-183.

2. Batalov E. (2012) Sovremennye globalnye trendy i novoe soznanie [Contemporary Megatrends and a New Consienceness]. Mezhdunarodnye Protessy. Vol. 10. No. 1 (28). January - April.

3. Beck U. (2000). Obschestvo riska. Na puti k drugomu modernu [Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity]. Moscow: Progress-Traditsiya. 384 p.

4. Foucault M. (1976). Histoire de la sexualit , 1: la volont de savoir. Paris: ditions Gallimard. 168 p.

5. Gaman-Golutvina O.V. (2016). Politicheskaya nauka pered vyzovami sovremennoj politiki. K 60-letiyu SAPN / RAPN [Political Science Facing Challenges of Current Politics. To the 60s Anniversary of SAPN /

6. RAPN]. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya. No. 1 P. 8-28. DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2016.01.02

7. Gaman-Golutvina O. (ed.) (2015-2016). Rossijskaya politicheskaya nauka: Istoki i perspektivy [Russian Political Science: Roots and Prospects]. Moscow: Aspekt Press.

8. Giddens A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. 256 p.

9. Giddens A. (2004). Uskol’zayuschij mir: kak globalizatsiya menyaet nashu zhizn’ [Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives]. Moscow: Ves’ mir. 116 p.

10. Lukin A.V., Lukin P.V. (2015). Umom Rossiyu ponimat’ [To Understand Russia Consciously]. Moscow: Ves’ mir. 384 p.

11. Polunin Ya.A., Timofeev I.N. (2009). Nelinejnye politicheskie protsessy [Nonlinear Political Processes]. Moscow: MGIMO University. 204 p.

12. Smirnov V.A. (2012). Politicheskaya elita v kontekste global’nykh sotsial’nykh izmenenij. In Politicheskij klass v sovremennom obschestve. Ed. by O.V. Gaman-Golutivna. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

13. Taleb N.N. (2014). Antikhrupkost’. Kak izvlech vygody iz khaosa [Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder]. Moscow: KoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus. 768 p.

14. Wohlforth W. (2015). “Rossijsko-zapadnum otnosheniyam nedostaet realistskogo mirovospriyatiya, prichem s obeikh storon…” [Russian-Western Relations Suffer from the Lack of Realist Vision from Both Sides…]. Mezhdunarodnye Protsessy. No. 4. P. 153-165. DOI 10.17994/IT.2015.13.4.43.11