International Affairs No. 6, 2024 – Table of Contents

Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs: Aleksandr Anatolyevich [Pankin], given that Russia has shifted its focus toward the East and the Global South, how effective is the Eurasian Economic Union in the current context? In other words, has the EAEU fallen off the global radar?

Aleksandr Pankin: That’s a good question. First off, I wouldn’t say that the EAEU isn’t part of the South or the East. Second, I won’t dwell on the reasons why we pivoted toward the South and East – those reasons are clear. The context is understandable…

Three familiar principles from [Nixon’s] statesmanship would continue to benefit the United States: the centrality of the national interest, the maintenance of the global equilibrium and the creation of sustained and intense discussions among major countries to construct a framework of legitimacy within which the balance of power can be defined and observed.

RELATIONS among the world’s great powers and leading states have always played a key role in maintaining regional and global peace. History provides ample evidence of this, including both world wars and the Cold War. The post-Cold War period was no exception, despite hopes for a so-called “peace dividend” and cooperation not only among the leading Western powers (which was already happening on the basis of “American leadership”) but also more broadly, including non-Western powers that…

BILATERAL relations between Russia and European countries worsened in 2014 after Crimea reunited with Russia following a referendum in which citizens of the peninsula voted to join the Russian Federation. Tensions are escalating on the European continent as a result of the West’s aggressive actions and terrorist methods against Russia in connection with the start of [Russia’s] Special Military Operation in 2022 to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, as well as the West’s consistent withdrawal from treaties that determine the architecture of European security. The international expert community has various perceptions of the situation in Europe. Both similarities and differences can be seen in the approaches of policy analysts from Russia and other countries to assessing European security.

THE first treaty to be terminated at the initiative of the US was the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) – the main treaty that had defined European security for over 30 years [17]. Russia was forced to withdraw from the treaty after the US did, although it had urged the American side not to take that step. At the time, during a meeting of the..

RELATIVELY recently, in 2022, two significant and interconnected dates on the UN calendar were observed: the 50th anniversary of the UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972) and the 30th anniversary of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992). In an article marking this milestone, “Unsustainable Sustainability: Agenda 2030 as a Means of Unifying the World,”¹ I attempted to provide a general overview of the emergence of the sustainable development concept and to evaluate the progress of its implementation under UN auspices. The conclusion then was, unfortunately, discouraging: There was little hope for meaningful results in reconfiguring the global economy toward sustainable development or for the timely achievement of the Agenda 2030 targets,² which include the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Today, in the immediate aftermath of the recently concluded UN General Assembly’s Summit of the Future: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow (September 22-23, 2024, New York), it is appropriate to once again revisit the issue of SDG implementation and consider whether there is even a glimmer of hope for what the UN’s impassioned rhetoric calls a “better tomorrow.”…

THE new Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025 (hereinafter referred to as the OEWG or the Group), convened at Russia’s initiative and supported by the majority of the international community during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly,¹ began its main work in December 2021, with the final results to be assessed four years later.

To ensure that the OEWG’s work is systematic and practical, its chair, Burhan Gafoor, permanent representative of the Republic of Singapore to the UN, proposed that interim reports be adopted annually at the Group’s summer sessions. That proposal was supported by all states…

THE unanimous adoption in July 2022 of the first interim report by the new Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communication technologies 2021-2025 was the result of a compromise to maintain the positive momentum of the Group’s work and prospects for reaching agreements that would help establish an international information security system.

Whether that decision by the Russian side was justified was to be demonstrated by subsequent OEWG meetings and the nature of any initiatives by other delegations. However, preliminary conclusions regarding the further development of this situation became possible after the review of relevant draft resolutions submitted by Russia and France to the First Committee of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly in October-November 2022…

ON JULY 22, 2024, the world marked the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the Bretton Woods Conference, which led to the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This milestone provides an opportune moment to assess the progress achieved and reflect on future challenges.

In 1944, when these institutions were created, the world was vastly different. World War II was still ongoing, but the defeat of Nazism was within reach. Beginning in 1943, consultations were held in Moscow and Washington among the Allies of the anti-Hitler coalition – primarily the US, the UK, and the USSR – regarding the future world order, including its economic dimensions…

ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1944, an economic department was formed at the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, marking the beginning of modern Russian economic diplomacy. Over the course of its existence, the current Department of Economic Cooperation (DEC) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has undergone numerous transformations, gradually expanding its functions as the foreign economic agenda has expanded and become more complex…

IN NOVEMBER 2024, the next plenary meeting of the working bodies of the Kimberley Process (KP) – a unique sectoral regulatory mechanism ensuring the transparent functioning of the global natural diamond market – will take place. For nearly three years, this format has been under intense political pressure from Western countries, which, under the guise of anti-Russian hysteria, aim to dominate the global diamond industry. During this period, the KP has become a striking example of effective resistance to the hypocritical attempts of the collective West to undermine mechanisms of international cooperation outside its control.

Over its more than 20-year history, the KP participants¹ have succeeded in reducing the share of so-called “conflict diamonds”² in global circulation from 15%to 1%. This achievement has significantly strengthened the socioeconomic stability and security of African diamond-producing countries. The KP’s success lay in the constructive interaction of stakeholder states, the industry, and civil society to ensure the effective adherence to the core requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) – a set of universally recognized rules underpinning the global trade in natural diamonds. Despite occasional Western attempts to inject their own “value-driven” narratives, the Kimberley Process until recently served as a model multilateral platform for achieving effective consensus-based decisions…

THE Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is in a challenging phase of development as it navigates the transformation of the international system and establishes itself as an independent center of power in the emerging multipolar world. Stability and the resilience of democratic institutions play a crucial role in these processes, strengthening their immunity to modern challenges and various authoritarian deviations…