🌔 The term “moon race” appeared long ago, at the dawn of the space age, and from the very beginning acquired a pronounced geopolitical dimension.

It reflected the great, perhaps unnecessarily great symbolic importance that was attached to primacy in space, if you look at the situation in retrospect.

The Soviet Union was the first nation to launch an artificial Earth satellite into orbit and the first to send a man into space. The Americans responded by landing their astronauts on the moon. 

Deep space exploration programmes are again accompanied by geopolitical competition. Apparently, this situation is inevitable. 

Valdai Club Programme Director Oleg Barabanov writes about the Lunar race and world politics.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/why-is-the-moon-needed-the-lunar-race-and-world/

#Norms_and_Values #Moon #space

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 The deterioration of US-China relations has long been a generally recognised trend. The high-tech sector has become a key front for containing China. 

The general line of Washington is to limit the access of Chinese companies to the technologies of the United States and its allies. Such technologies can solve dual-use problems and lead to the subsequent modernisation of the PRC in both the military and civilian sectors.

Another indicator of China’s containment in the field of high technologies is President Biden’s new Executive Order “On Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern.” The new Executive Order introduces a National Emergency due to the fact that individual countries use access to US civilian technology to develop their military-industrial complex. In the annex to the Order, China is named as such a country, as well as the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. 

The new legal mechanism gives the Administration wide room to limit Chinese companies’ access to US high-tech firms. The flexibility of the mechanism will be determined by the ability to revise the categories of transactions, technologies and foreign entities that are subject to restrictions. At the same time, the mechanism is likely to provide more opportunities, in comparison with the norms that already exist.

The intensity of US sanctions against China is incomparable to the volume of US restrictions on Russia. This does not mean that sooner or later there will not be a landslide fall in relations. The creeping nature of the escalation gives Beijing time to prepare for the worst-case scenario, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Ivan Timofeev.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/us-china-creeping-escalation/

#EconomicStatecraft #sanctions #China #UnitedStates

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🌐 Despite the fact that people have lived with conflict throughout their history, they have always dreamed of a peaceful and harmonious existence.

It cannot be said that all efforts were in vain: it is obvious that today we live better than centuries ago. The world has become less cruel, and undoubtedly more convenient. But looking at current events, one understands that considerable effort is required to build a future which is acceptable to everyone.

Many of these elites (not all) are not yet ready to search for a comprehensive solution. Moreover, this applies primarily to the elites of Western countries. They expect that they can maintain a world hierarchy based on the ruins of the Yalta world for a long time.

Incidentally, they are ready to turn the real world, the one we live in, into ruins, just to maintain their hegemony.

In general, the world is at a turning point. Although it is split, it still needs to develop and make this development safe; it needs to come up with a systematic world order so that there is no single hegemonic power.

Development will go through the creation and development of new world centres in the form of associations, unions of states, the organisation of interaction between them, and the formation of new mechanisms for taking into account the interests of the more than 8 billion people living on Earth. Overall, we have a chance to see how a new connectedness based on respect for diversity will be formed in a world full of differences.

With all the intellectual complexity of the modern world, it is necessary to think about its future, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/chairman-speech/splendid-diversity/

The issues mentioned above, and many others, will be discussed at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for All”, which will be held in Sochi on October 2-5.

📌 Programme of the 20th Annual Meeting

#VALDAI2023

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🗣 Dear friends, please see the schedule of the open sessions of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone”

 
📆 October 2, Monday
 
09:50 – 10:00 — Opening of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club (LIVE)

10:00 – 11:00 — Presentation of the Valdai Discussion Club’s Annual Report (LIVE)

The concept of a multipolar world, proposed by Russia and supported by China, India, and a number of other major powers, was coined in the mid-1990s as a reaction to the post-Cold War global hegemony. The theoretical idea eventually turned into a practical goal and then into international reality. The next stage is to conceptualize how exactly this world order will function. On what basis will the centres of power interact and how can the conflict inherent in any polycentrism be curbed?

11:30 – 13:30 — Session 1. A World Beyond Hegemony: BRICS as a Prototype of a New International Architecture (LIVE)

A polycentric system cannot be unified by definition. The centres of power, influence and development are culturally and ideologically self-sufficient. Creating a world order means developing mechanisms to take into account the interests of everyone and to work together for the development of all. This is the content of the BRICS. The organisation has entered a new stage of its development, and its expansion means a transition to the gradual creation of another world system – not against someone, but on qualitatively different principles.

 
📆 October 3, Tuesday
 
09:30 – 11:00 — Session 4. Interconnection Instead of Dictate: A Global Economy Without Currency Monopoly and Punitive Measures (LIVE)

The acute military and political conflict has had a strong impact on functioning of the world economy, but also helped to accumulate rich experience of working in unfavourable conditions. New crises of various kinds are likely to arise. Establishing a balance of countries’ and peoples’ economic interests is as important for a sustainable world order as lasting peace and indivisible security. What are the main lessons of economic interaction in the conditions of restrictions, how likely is the shift away from monopolism in the monetary and financial sphere, what is the balance of integration and self-sufficiency in the economic development of states?


📆 October 4, Wednesday

12:00 – 13:30 — Session 8. Russian Civilisation Through the Centuries (LIVE)

Russia is a country of European culture, but this is not its only characteristic. The Russian cultural and social structure has absorbed important elements of various non-European cultures and traditions, resulting in a unique fusion. This is the basis for the development of a national identity, which is now described as a “distinctive state-civilization”.


📆 October 5, Thursday

09:30 – 11:30 — Session 10. Twenty Years of Valdai Discussions. Memories of the Future. General Discussion (LIVE)

The story of the Valdai Club’s twenty meetings is a chronicle of an extremely interesting and turbulent time. Russia and the world have been changing dramatically and very rapidly. Twenty years ago, when the Valdai Club was founded, it was hard to imagine today’s events. Can we try to imagine the world twenty years from now? What will change for the better and what will change for the worse?

16:00 — Plenary session (LIVE)

📌 Programme of the 20th Annual Meeting

#VALDAI2023

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✍️ On October 1, 2023, in Sochi, on the eve of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, the Club and the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) signed a memorandum of understanding.

On behalf of the Valdai Club, the memorandum was signed by Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, and on behalf of the VIF – by Arvind Gupta, Director of the Vivekananda Foundation. The ceremony was attended by Venkatesh Varma, Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, Former Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation (2018–2021).

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/valdai-club-and-vivekananda-international-foundation-sign-a-memorandum-of-understanding/

#VALDAI2023 #Valdai_ThinkTank

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🗣 Good morning! Today at 9:50 Moscow time the opening of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone” will start in Sochi.
 
📆 Programme for October 2, Monday
 
09:50 – 10:00 — Opening of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club (LIVE)

10:00 – 11:00 — Presentation of the Valdai Discussion Club’s Annual Report (LIVE)

The concept of a multipolar world, proposed by Russia and supported by China, India, and a number of other major powers, was coined in the mid-1990s as a reaction to the post-Cold War global hegemony. The theoretical idea eventually turned into a practical goal and then into international reality. The next stage is to conceptualize how exactly this world order will function. On what basis will the centres of power interact and how can the conflict inherent in any polycentrism be curbed?

11:30 – 13:30 — Session 1. A World Beyond Hegemony: BRICS as a Prototype of a New International Architecture (LIVE)

A polycentric system cannot be unified by definition. The centres of power, influence and development are culturally and ideologically self-sufficient. Creating a world order means developing mechanisms to take into account the interests of everyone and to work together for the development of all. This is the content of the BRICS. The organisation has entered a new stage of its development, and its expansion means a transition to the gradual creation of another world system – not against someone, but on qualitatively different principles.

14:30 – 16:00 — Session 2. The Role of Nuclear Weapons and the Danger of Nuclear War

16:30 – 18:00 — Meeting with Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

19:30 – 21:00 — Session 3. Food Security: What Russia Can and Is Ready to Give the World

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/programme-of-the-20th-annual-meeting-of-the-valdai-discussion-club/

A link to the live broadcast of open sessions will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.

#VALDAI2023#valdai_programme

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🎥 LIVE: at 09:50 the opening of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone” will start together with the presentation of the Valdai Discussion Club’s Annual Report, titled “Maturity Certificate, or The Order That Never Was. Fantasy of a Hierarchy-Free Future.”

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239122

#VALDAI2023 #valdai_report

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🌐 Most descriptions of the international order – whether existing or imminent –invariably include the notion of “many,” such as multilateralism, multipolarity, polycentrism, and so on.

This is natural. The number of meaningful international relations actors is unprecedentedly large, more than in a very long time, if ever.

The world (especially its European part seeking expansion and dominance) has long been accustomed to the rigid hierarchical constructs that defined the international system. Over the past 200 years, the hierarchy has been consistently becoming less complicated. From the Concert of Europe in the 19th century to the opposing “axes” of the first half of the 20th century, and from rigid bipolarity of the Cold War to the “unipolar moment” which was declared after it ended. The latter was the culmination. In a sense, the “end of history” announced in 1989 was indeed a final milestone. Not the end of history itself, but the end of a specific and quite lengthy phase which was an era of hierarchies.

To be sure, hierarchy has ended. However, it did not end with its complete triumph and the dissolution of the international order therein, but with the exhaustion of the possibilities that it offered. The unification efforts have had the reverse effect, as different cultures and peoples seek to emphasise their identity and distinctiveness even more. The current stage is transitional. Ideological attempts are being made to maintain the dominance of a single set of norms and rules in the spirit of the post-Cold War period. But it is being imposed coercively, as in much earlier periods.

The push to preserve elements of the former international order within what is emerging today is an important cause of the current confrontations. However, the gradual convergence of forward-looking states is playing an even more important role, write the authors of the Valdai Discussion Club’s Annual Report, titled “Maturity Certificate, or The Order That Never Was. Fantasy of a Hierarchy-Free Future.” They try to present an image of the future world and bring their findings to the discussion of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone.”

https://valdaiclub.com/a/reports/maturity-certificate-or-the-order-that-never-was/

#VALDAI2023 #valdai_report #NewWorldOrder

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1️⃣ LIVE: at 11:30 Moscow time we are starting a broadcast of Session 1 of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting, titled “A World Beyond Hegemony: BRICS as a Prototype of a New International Architecture.” 

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239123

#VALDAI2023 #BRICS

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🗣 Session 1 of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting, titled “A World Beyond Hegemony: BRICS as a Prototype of a New International Architecture”

📷 Follow this link to see photos.

🎥 The video of the session is available via this link.

#VALDAI2023

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☢️ The nine nuclear-armed states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Israel — continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems.

Especially for the 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, we created an infographic on nuclear weapons dynamics in 2022-2023. Click here to see the full infographic.

#VALDAI2023 #NuclearWeapons

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🌏 BRICS and the SCO are the antipodes of NATO and the European Union -the pinnacles of the institutional building of the West.

NATO was built around the rigid core of absolute US military dominance over its allies. This allows this organisation to avoid serious internal conflicts, and also ensures its most important task - maintaining the strategic internal stability of the participants. All NATO governments are handing over the crucial function of defence planning to the United States, and in doing so, rid themselves of one of the most frequent sources of domestic political upheaval.

In the case of the European Union, it is about a more complex balance of power between the big countries, allowing the sustainability of overall cooperation despite the persistence of injustice towards the interests of the weaker countries.

BRICS and the SCO have nothing in common with this nature.

For the BRICS and the SCO, the risk of following the path of the West is much lower than one might assume, with traditional ideas about the consequences of strong institutions for global peace. In any case, both examples are new in their philosophy; an assessment of their nature and potential gives us rich material for a better understanding of how a more just world order can be organised, writes Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/false-and-real-international-institutions/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #WorldOrder #BRICS #SCO

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2️⃣ Session 2 of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting, titled “The Role of Nuclear Weapons and the Danger of Nuclear War.”

📷 Follow this link to see photos.

#VALDAI2023

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🗣 On the first day of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting, a meeting of the participants with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov @MFARussia took place within the framework of the forum.

📷 Follow this link to see photos.

#VALDAI2023

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🗣 Session 3 “Food Security: What Russia Can and Is Ready to Give the World” of the Valdai Club 20th Annual Meeting.

📷 Click here to see photos.

#VALDAI2023

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🎥 Dilemmas of Multipolarity: Richard Sakwa on the presentation of the Valdai Club’s Annual Report

This year the Valdai Report is focused on epochal changes which are taking place in the international politics, in particular on multipolarity, but at the same time admitting that multipolarity has its own dilemmas.

Richard Sakwa, Professor Emeritus of Politics, University of Kent, shares his thoughts on the presentation of the Valdai Discussion Club’s Annual Report, titled “Maturity Certificate, or The Order That Never Was. Fantasy of a Hierarchy-Free Future.”

#VALDAI2023 #valdai_podcast #multipolarity

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🗣 Good morning! The 20th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone” continues today.
 
📆 Programme for October 3, Tuesday
 
09:30 – 11:00 — Session 4. Interconnection Instead of Dictate: A Global Economy Without Currency Monopoly and Punitive Measures (LIVE)

The acute military and political conflict has had a strong impact on functioning of the world economy, but also helped to accumulate rich experience of working in unfavourable conditions. New crises of various kinds are likely to arise. Establishing a balance of countries’ and peoples’ economic interests is as important for a sustainable world order as lasting peace and indivisible security. What are the main lessons of economic interaction in the conditions of restrictions, how likely is the shift away from monopolism in the monetary and financial sphere, what is the balance of integration and self-sufficiency in the economic development of states?

11:30 – 13:00 — Meeting with Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

14:30 – 16:00 — Session 5. The Russian Economy: Against All Odds or Thanks to the Shake-Up?

16:30 – 18:00 — Meeting with Maxim Oreshkin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation

19:30 – 21:00 — Session 6. Energy Markets Amid Military and Political Tensions: How Will They Develop?

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/programme-of-the-20th-annual-meeting-of-the-valdai-discussion-club/

A link to the live broadcast of the open session will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.

#VALDAI2023 #valdai_programme

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