🌏 For a long time to come, external factors will remain a major security threat to the Central Asian countries. There is no doubt about it. However, in assessing security risks, more attention should be paid to internal factors as well as external threats.

Both terrorist activities and “colour revolutions” are mainly caused by domestic factors, and mainly carried out by domestic forces. Even foreign terrorist groups targeting Central Asian states are mostly comprised of those states’ own citizens. Of course, internal and external factors are intertwined and difficult to separate, but internal factors are fundamental.

Since internal problems present the greatest risk, the main way to maintain security and stability in Central Asia should be the elimination of internal problems, even if the barrier to external dangers should be built first and foremost at home.

In fact, the Central Asian countries have become increasingly aware of it, and the reforms underway in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are aimed at this end, writes Zhao Huasheng.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/central-asia-in-change-where-do-security-risks/

#Азия_и_Евразия #CentralAsia

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🇺🇳 The UN system is in crisis. The main reason for this is the general loss of the West's ability to bolster its institutional capabilities with the resources needed for unchallenged global leadership. 

The recently concluded High-Level Week within the framework of the 78th UN General Assembly was accompanied by growing discussions about the need to reform this organisation. First of all, we are talking about the future of its highest body - the Security Council (UNSC), whose five permanent members (Great Britain, China, Russia, the USA and France) have exclusive rights in the field of international security.

The United Nations is the institutional embodiment of the West's desire to preserve the international order in which it has played a leading role for more than 500 years. That is why it is fundamentally important for the United States and Europe to maintain their majority in the Security Council. This is what ultimately makes it possible to effectively control the working bodies of the UN. First of all, the secretariat of this most important international organisation.

Now the UN remains the last “pillar” of a relatively stable world order and, at the same time, ensures the formal participation of almost all countries of the world in the discussion of the global agenda. In other words, the UN as we know it is the product of a compromise in which the West maintains its dominance and everyone else does not feel a complete injustice is being done to their basic interests. 

Russia and especially China are feeling increasingly confident and are actually rejecting the UN-centred common order as an instrument of Western dominance. The Western countries themselves are trying to counterattack in response, and are raising the issue of reforming the Security Council, including new permanent members.

Timofei Bordachev writes on possibility of the reform of the United Nations.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/reforming-the-un-possibility-and-necessity-/

#Азия_и_Евразия #UN #UnitedNations #SecurityCouncil

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💻 In the last few years, we have seen a worldwide pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, and the weaponisation of non-traditional aspects of the economy, especially the digital economy.

The weaponisation of banking systems and digital platforms, systematic cyberattacks, and surveillance using telecommunications hardware has pushed states' digital policymakers and national security leaders to establish a de-risking strategy in order to regain sovereignty over the digital realm. 

What we mean by de-risking strategy is developing trust-based partnerships where economic interests, historical linkages, shared values, and the competitive strengths of partners help them secure a resilient domestic digital economy. In these partnerships, we define trust in a broader sense, allowing states to pursue their national interests while ensuring economic security.

The de-risking approach follows the classical international theory of managing and avoiding risks. This phase of the de-risking strategy is transitory, as states would utilise multilateral forums like BRICS+, G20, and SCO to de-escalate these tensions and build on confidence-building measures to balance sovereignty concerns and avoid an AI-led digital arms race, writes Arvind Gupta.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/de-risking-towards-digital-sovereignty/

#Азия_и_Евразия #digitalisation #sovereignty

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