Abstract of the journal number 11, November 2011

The Arab World's Fitna, or What Looms Ahead for the Troubled Middle East

O. Pavlov

Experts hold that the unrest across the Arab world provides Washington with a pretext for absolving the US from responsibility over the collapse of the post-September 11 agenda – an ambitious plan to infuse democracy and new values into the region - and for switching to a new, potentially also short-living, program

African Union and the Libyan Crisis: Will the Voice of Africa be Heard?

A. Boguslavsky

The roadmap suggested last May by the African Union High‐Level ad hoc Committee on Libya, a forum which comprises the presidents of Congo, Mauritania, Mali, Uganda, and South Africa plus the commission's chairperson Jean Ping, is a reasonable platform for opening up dialog in the country torn apart by the ferocious conflict. Moreover, if the plan of the African Union gains acceptance, it will be fair to say that the principle by which Africans are to solve the problems of their own continent begins to materialize

EDITOR'S COLUMN

What Gaddafi Was Able to Tell the International Court

A. Oganesyan

The view expressed by B. Obama – that Gaddafi’s death sent a strong message to dictators all around the world – resonated with the media across the West, with those in Germany seeming to be a lone exception from the rule. It is a big question, however, whether the message is consistent. One might argue, for example, that the lynching of Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci who were hanged heads down hardly sent a stronger message than the Nuremberg Trials which served to expose with striking clarity the bestial nature of fascism 

POLITICS

Cooperation in the Nuclear Sphere Between Brazil and Argentina

Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Héctor Timerman

This year comes the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Brazil-Argentina agreement on exclusively civilian nuclear energy. As a part of the deal, both countries assumed the obligation to never cultivate, stockpile, or use nuclear weapons and pledged to confine their use of nuclear power to civilian purposes. The Brazilian–Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials was established based on the agenda

Russia-China: Understanding and Trust Achieved

I. Antonov

In many regards, Russian prime minister V. Putin's October visit to China differed from more ordinary high-level diplomatic tours. Mindful of the underlying themes, commentators and watchers were tempted to guess which subjects – and with what results – could have been touched upon during more secretive  phases of the negotiations

Permanent Importance of the Legacy of the Nuremberg Trials to the Mission of Safeguarding Peace and International Security Against Traditional and Emerging Challenges

A. Varfolomeev

Two key events were commemorated last fall. September 11 marked a decade since the bloody terrorist attack on the US, and  October 1 was – for the whole world or, at least, for the part of it mindful of the deepest historical experiences – the 65th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials which led to the sentencing of the top Nazi criminals. Combined, the two dates reflect the superposition of the traditional and emerging challenges confronting the mankind

MULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY

Russia Eyes BRICS in a Search for Alternative Partnerships in World Economy

T. Isachenko

BRICS may be at the center of the world policy debate, but until recently the Russian perspective on the alliance used to be built around global political architectures and shared positions in international affairs rather than on the economic potential of the engagement with the alliance. Assessments of the corresponding economic opportunities vary widely, and the purposes of the present paper are to create a framework for the economic part of the discussions and to pinpoint the alternatives the cooperation with BRICS offers to the economic priorities currently adopted in Moscow

The UN and the Struggle Against International Terrorism

E. Vasnetsova

The development of international anti-terrorist programs was propelled to the top of the agenda by the September 11 drama. As of today, the international legal regime of the anti-terrorist activities has taken shape, with the UN documents – conventions, resolutions, declarations, etc. – playing the essential roles

MOSCOW DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Nine Decades of the Diplomatic Relations Between Russia and Mongolia

Doloonjin Idevkhten

The friendship treaty between Russia and Mongolia was signed in Moscow on November 5, 1921. The agreement became the backbone of a lasting partnership between the two countries. For Mongolia, ties with Russia remain a priority, and the past several years saw a considerable intensification of the political interactions between the two countries

HISTORY MILESTONES

P.A. Stolypin's Reforms and Russian Interests in Foreign Politics

E. Voronin

The program of the sweeping Stolypin reform – of the renovation of Russia, as contemporaries described it – had a significant foreign-policy component. So far, little attention has been paid to the diplomatic aspect of the transformations set in motion by Stolypin

BOOKSHELF

Soft Power: a New Study of the French Contribution to Russian Intellectual Life

E. Obichkina

A joint Russian-French study titled “The French Contribution to Russian Academic and Intellectual Life in the XVIII-XX Centuries” and released by the Institute for World History of the Russian Academy of Science is based on the proceedings of a Moscow conference organized by the Roland Mousnier Center, the archive of the Russian Academy of Science, and the Russian State University for the Humanities

Where We Stand in the World

E. Anan'eva

The monograph “Russia in the Concert of Civilizations” presents a spectrum of views on the key trends of the socioeconomic and political evolution of the post-Soviet Russia. The polemic character of the materials included should draw additional readership to the book as at the moment neither Russia nor the West seem to be certain where our country stands in the world of today

A Useful Study of the Russian Diplomatic Protocol

N. Kozyrev, A. Volodin, P. Razvin

I.N. Semenov's “Russian Diplomatic Protocol: History and Modernity” is a profound study spanning the key periods of the Russian statehood and, accordingly, of the national diplomacy which helped advance the country's foreign-policy objectives

Limits of Defense and Security

A. Frolov

The relations between Moscow and NATO constantly grab the Russian media headlines as the society weighs various options including the merger of the country into the alliance, a distanced position vis-a-vis NATO coupled to active protection of independent national interests, or the Eurasian orientation.  The book “The Army of the New World Order” by V. Shtol', a renown Russian political scientist, is a valuable addition to the ongoing debate.

The Social Europe

N. Promsky

Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Science published “The Social Europe in the XXI Century”. The present epoch is marked with global shifts which seriously affect Europe. The dynamics has profound socioeconomic repercussions and it currently appears that social problems will, in the long run, define the outlook throughout the century

Around the World on 400 Pages

P. Timofeev