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Author : A. Yuriev
International commentator
LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE introduced
the Russian-language edition of its annual
Atlas with lines from the Greek poet Cavafy.
This annual publication is best described as
another attempt to analyze the key geopolitical
trends and the balance of forces in the world
in the context of exacerbated economic, social
and national contradictions. The Editors are
convinced that the world has come close to a
new balance of forces when new accents in world politics determine the entire set of
geopolitical problems and change the relationships between nations.
The Atlas points out that Asia is rapidly moving to the fore with other following suite.
This has already caused one of the most important international shifts since the time of
the Industrial Revolution.
India and China are described as giants that will turn geopolitics upside down. China's
steadily increasing share in world exports provides a glaring contrast to America's steadily
lowering weight in the world trade turnover.
The United States, its military budget being half of what the rest of the world spends on
defense, remains an uncontested leader in the international security sphere.
International politics are further destabilized by the arms race, albeit with shifted accents:
speculations about WMD proliferation are used to justify new crusades and downplay the
grim truth about the rapidly unfolding conventional arms race.
On the whole, the authors tend to underestimate Russia's role in the post-Soviet expanse,
yet much of what the French political scientists said about Russia can be accepted.
The authors seem to be unaware of the fact that "vagueness" of Russia's image in the pe-
riod of transition is preferable while economically Russia looks very attractive to the post-
Soviet oecumene.
On the whole, the wealth of factual material, fresh approaches to global and regional po-
litical and economic trends combined with the creative design which makes the content
easy to grasp make the Atlas an outstanding contribution of French political science to a
better understanding of the world we live in.
Waiting for the Barbarians
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»