🌐 In the outgoing year, international politics finally got rid of all remnants of controllability.

In principle, the global changes in the balance of power, provoked by the growth of China and the West’s reaction to this, initially did not leave much room for the leading powers to consider the interests of others as among their own.

However, until recently, one could expect that the most important consequence of the destruction of the United States’ monopoly together with its closest allies on playing the role of a global distributor of benefits, would be the democratisation of international politics: the need to create broad coalitions capable of solving the most important tasks on the basis of comparatively equal benefits. This, in turn, could increase the controllability of world affairs, which was considerably shaken in the decades since the Cold War.

As we can see, these expectations turned out not to be sufficiently connected with reality, and now the states are faced, not with the task of how to improve human civilization and cooperation with each other, but how to manage the relative general savagery.

The passing into oblivion of international institutions, the most important achievement of the 20th century, leaves a huge field of opportunities for the great powers, and we cannot say now which of them will be in demand in order to avoid general destruction, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.

🔗 Undemocratic Uncontrollable World

#Global_Governance #Valdai_WrapUp2021 #worldorder

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

⚖️🌐 In 2021, the coronavirus pandemic continued to be one of the most important events.

Naturally, its influence on world politics and society remained the main focus of the Valdai Discussion Club experts.

In addition to the pandemic, the climate agenda has become the most important event of 2021. The COP-26 Summit in Glasgow in October-November was at the centre of global interest, sparking a heated debate in the world regarding the strategy and pace of green transformation. 

A separate large topic of the Club’s work was the impact of the pandemic on international migration, on the value and ethical perception of global migrants, and on the dynamics of migrant phobia in host societies.

The politics of historical memory in recent years has become one of the key topics in the expert work of the Club. Its analysis was continued this year as well.

👉 All these topics (the pandemic, climate and history) directly affect the evolution of values and moral norms in today’s global society, writes Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

🔗 Pandemic and Climate, History and Values: Results of the Valdai Club Expert Programme

#Morality_and_Law #Valdai_WrapUp2021 #pandemic #climatechange #migration

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

⛔️🌐 The past year has been marked by a number of interesting trends in sanctions policy.

In part, they were influenced by last year's victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the US elections. Washington is still the largest instigator of sanctions, and the restrictive measures taken by the Americans are the most dangerous for business.

The change of administration in the United States has resulted in adjustments to the policy of sanctions against Russia, China and Iran.

The EU’s toolkit of restrictive measures has been gradually developing, although there have been no significant breakthroughs.

Belarus can be directly called the “target country” of the year. The level of sanctions levied against Minsk by the US, EU, UK, Canada and Switzerland has increased significantly.

China has shown its determination to offer a strong response to the West’s restrictive measures.

The key intrigue of the coming year is the situation around Ukraine. At present, the scenario of an open military clash between Russia and Ukraine is the only real factor that can lead to a radical increase in the quantity and quality of sanctions pressure on Russia, writes Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

🔗 Results of 2021: Sanctions Policy

#Valdai_WrapUp2021 #sanctions

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🇫🇷🇪🇺 A special priority of the French presidency is to strengthen the defence capabilities of the EU.

2021 has been rich in negative events for European security: the world has witnessed the collapse of the Open Skies Treaty, American-French discord concerning AUKUS, the termination of the official dialogue between Russia and NATO, and the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Over the past year, the Western countries seem to have been searching for new strategies.

Since the end of 2020, work has continued on the EU European Parliamentary Research Service project — the Strategic Compass. The dialectic between Atlanticism and Europeanism softened after Joe Biden came to power in the United States, but the European interests and red lines retain their significance for transatlantic relations. In 2022, together with the rotating post of the President of the EU Council, the role of a potential newsmaker in this area has been transferred to Emmanuel Macron, who feels very comfortable in it.

Emmanuel Macron’s stakes are high. The mobilisation of the Élysée Palace’s foreign policy is one of the most interesting subjects to watch in the year 2022, writes Julia Melnikova, Program Assistant at the Russian International Affairs Council.

🔗 The French Dispatch: The Year 2022 and European Security

#Valdai_WrapUp2021 #France #EU

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🌐 2021 was a year of growing confusion and a jubilee year for the New Peace, which ended the Cold War thirty years ago.

It was the second year of the pandemic, which is increasingly being perceived as the new normal, a kind of common life.

2021 was a year in which the old world order continued to crumble, and through the cracks, the contours of the new order are beginning to emerge. The increasingly complex vortex of international life makes it difficult to implement foreign policy for most countries. The polycentricity towards which Russia has been striving so much, is yielding more and more surprises.

The erosion of American hegemony has opened up a wide scope for the activities of medium and small countries amid crises in Eastern Europe — primarily in Ukraine and Belarus. In these situations, we observe medium-sized and small countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Latvia engaging in especially risky behaviour. However, this behaviour is not accompanied by an awareness of their responsibility for peace and stability in Europe.

The increasingly complex vortex of international life makes it difficult to implement foreign policy for most countries. The polycentricity towards which Russia has been striving so much, is yielding more and more surprises, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.

🔗 The Crumbling of the World Order and Its Friends: Results of 2021

#Conflict_and_Leadership #Valdai_WrapUp2021 #worldorder

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club