Moscow. Second International Congress ‘Globalistics-2011: Ways to Strategic Stability and the Problem of Global Governance (Igor I. Abylgaziev and Ilya V. Ilyin)
On May 19–21, 2011 the Moscow University hosted key events of the Second International Scientific Congress ‘Globalistics-2011: Ways to Strategic Stability and the Problem of Global Governance’.
The Congress was held by the initiative of and on the base of the Faculty of Global Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU), under the auspices of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO with participation of the UNESCO Chair on Emerging Global Social and Ethical Challenges for Large Cities and their Population, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and Russian Philosophic Society.
The Congress was attended by over 500 scientists and specialists from30 countriesof the world (including USA, China, Germany, India, Japan, Brazil, Nigeria and some other CIS, European, Asian, American and African countries) dealing with global problems and studies in the field of philosophy, sociology, political science, geography, ecology, economy, demography, history, justice, informatics, pedagogics, applied mathematics, theory of management and other areas of scientific knowledge. The first Congress ‘Globalistics’ was held in MGU in 2009 and was attended by over 300 scientists from 15 countries. This year the Congress has been almost twice as big as compared to the previous year, in terms of number of attendees and representativity, which is a sign of growing interest towards integrated solutions of global problems and growing role of the Moscow University in the life of the scientific community involved in global studies.
The second Congress ‘Globalistics’ was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Mikhail Lomonosov, a great Russian scientist, and the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin'sfirst flight in space.
On May 19, the Conference Hall of the MGU's 1st Humanitarian building hosted the opening ceremony – the Congress plenary session. It was opened by Viktor A. Sadovnichy, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Second International Scientific Congress ‘Globalistics–2011’, Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Academician of the RAS.
Professor Igor I. Abylgaziev, Research Supervisor of the MGU's Faculty of Global Processes, Chief Federal Inspector for Moscow, read off greetings from public officials, public organizations, and prominent scientists to participants and organizers of the Congress. Greetings were sent by Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Georgy S. Poltavchenko, Authorized Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District, Yevgeny M. Primakov, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dennis Meadows, prominent American scientist, co-author of the famous report to the Club of Rome titled ‘The Limits to Growth’, Roland Robertson, English scientist, pioneer in the area of globalization studies, Sergey P. Kapitsa, professor, author of a number of papers on global problems, and Peter Turchin, famous biologist, historian and mathematician.
Globalization is, in general, a positive process of creation of interconnected integral world in the course of human activity. However, the growth of negative consequences is also typical for it. To solve these controversies, all globalization processes (first of all, political, economic, social and ecological components) should move towards the new trend in evolution of the civilization, i.e. managed and sustainable development. Global Governance and manageability are the main subjects of studies in political Globalistics. Not all political scientists accept the very term ‘Global Governance’. However, the UN Committee on Global Governance was created in the previous decade. Increasingly more countries and organizations sign international cooperation agreements. In spite of most complicated political processes of competing for global leadership, the principle of multilateralism, i.e. multilateral mode of making decisions, is increasingly understood as the basic principle of the future politics. That is why the message of the Congress was the ‘Ways to Strategic Stability and the Problem of Global Governance’.
Ilya V. Ilin, professor, Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Congress, Dean of the MGU's Faculty of Global Studies, delivered a speech on the goals and programme of the Congress and introduced moderators of the Congress sessions.
In September 2010, a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation established a new RAS department: Department of Global Problems and International Relations. However, global problems can be solved only through cooperation of scientists from a wide range of fields and disciplines. In fact, all branches of the many-sided scientific activity of the Russian Academy of Sciences deal with modern global problems, overcoming of global challenges and determination of the Russia's vector in the global world.
Valery V. Kostyuk, Chief Scientific Secretary and Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences greeted the Congress and expressed his hope that participants of the Congress would take a step closer to finding the ways out of global problems.
The Congress ‘Globalistics-2011” was also dedicated to the International Youth Year held this year, sponsored by the UN. The UNESCO Office in Moscow pays a lot of attention to events related to the International Youth Year held in the Russian Federation and actively participates in such events. Dendev Badarch, Director of UNESCO Office in Moscow, delivered a speech on this subject at the opening ceremony.
The Russian Academy of Sciences members Viktor A. Sadovnichy and Askar A. Akaev presented conceptual papers titled ‘Mathematical modeling of global processes (new methodology)’ and ‘Global financial economic crisis of 2008: lessons, perspectives of recovery and new challenges’. A. A. Akaev, a foreign member of the RAS, spoke about the results of the latest research. His paper predicts the second wave of crisis in the nearest time and says that the global economic crisis (that started three years ago) is, in general, a long lasting but natural process accompaning the changeover of technological practices.
The biggest Session of the Congress was called ‘Philosophical Aspects of Glo-balisation and Global Processes’ moderated by the following famous scientists: professors Alexander N. Chumakov, Igor K. Liseev, Nizami M. Mamedov, Edward V. Guirusov, Khalil A. Barlybaev, Tatyana Shestova.
Most reports were dedicated to general issues of globalisation and opportunities for learning thereof. One of the contributors, namely, Aneta Karageorgieva, the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University, believes that it is philosophers who should clarify which rationality – global, local or glocal – should determine further development of the humankind if it is committed to follow the path of sense.
In accordance with professor Vladimir P. Bransky, Saint-Petersburg Philosophical School, the most important problem of modern Globalistics and philosophy of globality is building a synthetic concept of globalization. In his opinion, as the basis for such concept can serve synergetic philosophy of history which makes it possible to synthesize various methods and approaches. Session attendees discussed various approaches to the study of globalization and other global processes: civilizational, akmeologic, social and anthropological, ethical and other. The contributors expressed special concern in connection with ecological problems and problems related to natural resources. For example, E. V. Guirusov concluded his speech saying that all global problems are secondary in relation to the ‘man – nature’ problem.
Session ‘Global issues of education and training of specialists in global studies: qualification framework, curricula specifications and employment opportunities’ was chaired by Arkady D. Ursul, professor of MGU's Faculty of Global Studies, Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.
The most important processes of educational integration are, mostly, expressed in transformations like globalization of education and evolvement of the so called global education. An opinion was expressed that, theoretically, educational integration should be nationally induced, globally oriented and socially coordinated. One should make sure that identification of educational systems and enrichment of cultural interrelations do not lead to reduction of civilizational and cultural diversity. Global education is focused on ecological problems which are most fully seen in ecological aspects of modern education which is an important factor of transition to sustainable development. In 2005, the Russian Federation joined the Strategy of the UN Economic Commission for Europe on education for sustainable development which envisages formation (on the basis of further development of ecological education) of new behavioral stereotypes based on principles of ecological culture, on ideas of sustainable development and on substantiation of their priority. Great attention was also paid to other problems of culture in educational process in connection with new concepts and scientific fields like ‘virtual culture’ and ‘informational culturology’.
One of the key sessions of the Congress was called ‘World Politics and Global Geopolitics’. Pavel A. Tsygankov, professor of the Political Science Faculty, largest specialist of the Moscow University in the area of international relations, became the moderator of the session. The session raised the issues of theoretical status of global geopolitics, perspectives of global democracy, configuration and status hierarchy of the world in the 21st century, polarity of the modern world's political system. The most considerable interest was generated by issues related to the place of concept ‘conflict’ in the subject field of global geopolitics, problems of correlation between land and sea in the context of geopolitics, perspectives of the Russian – Chinese, Russian – American and Russian – Belorussian relations, problems of stability in the multi-polar world.
Perspectives of global economy and place and perspectives of the Russian Federation in global economy were discussed at the session called ‘Global financial crisis and economic recession: lessons to learn, outlook for economic recovery and new challenges’, chaired by Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. A. Akaev.
The session contributors touched upon the following problems: general objective laws of formation of the world crises; specific features of the 2007–2009 global financial crisis; impact of world crisis on financial capital flows, labor force and intellectual resources; response of able-bodied population and households to the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis; alternative ways of recovery from global crises and other issues.
Such topics as the theory of the world financial crisis, paths towards strategic stability, problems of global management, response of the society to consequences of the crisis and some other issues were considered at a new constructive angle in the presentations. In this regard, the multinational research base of academic papers and contacts of scientists and practical specialists in this area became wider.
Special integrative approach to the following academic problems and issues was noted: global evolution of approaches of the international society and national governments to agreed collective actions under conditions of occurrence and existence of crisis of any nature and level of complexity; interrelations, interdependencies and correlations of strategic and national priorities and state programs under conditions of the global financial crisis; political and social and economic mechanisms for ensuring national security and improving strategic planning and global management under the conditions of crisis.
One more session was called‘Technosphere and environment: challenges for global geoecology and environmental management’(moderator – professor Alexey V. Ivanov, the Dean of the Faculty of Ecology and Service, Saratov State Technical University). One of the sub-sessions was held at the Chair of Chemical Process of the MGU's Faculty of Chemistry, by initiative and under chairmanship of Vladimir A. Mamontov and Valery V. Menshikov,assistant professors.
The session contributors touched upon the following scientific problems: formation of global geoecosophical thinking; threats of technocratic thinking, autonomy and global manageability of technosphere; problems of global geochemistry and chemical technology; problems of global urbanization, formation of urban sphere and urbanism as the way of life; problem of global natural – man-induced – social disasters and framework of global ecology concepts in different languages. The session contributors mentioned a special relevance of global and geochemical, and global and technological aspects, in connection with problems like global geochemical contamination, necessary development of resource and energy saving technologies, relevancy and necessity of further development of global and urban problematics together with the UNESCO Chair on Emerging Global Social and Ethical Challenges for Large Cities, relevance and necessity of further study of conceptual and terminological framework in the area of global ecology and natural and man-made systems including development of specialized reference books (dictionaries, terminological encyclopedias etc.).
The session ‘Mathematical modeling in the study of global historic processes: achievements and prospects’was chaired by Dmitriy I. Trubetskov, corresponding member of the RAS, Academic Supervisor of the Faculty of Non-Linear Processes, Saratov State University. The session contributors discussed principles of new methodology of mathematical modeling of global processes presented by V. A. Sadovnichy and A. A. Akaev. The papers of the session attendees presented original mathematical models of global historical process of human development. The issue of qualitative analysis of globalisation processes was elaborated. Special interest of the session attendees was aroused by papers on mathematical modeling of global processes with the use of Lotka – Volterra system of equations and Lanchester models. The use of mathematical modeling for analysis of the last global wave of social and political destabilization was the subject of some presentations at the Session. In some papers, mathematical models were used to study the impact of global processes on dynamics of certain processes in the Russian Federation.
The session attendees adopted a resolution to encourage their colleagues to continue scientific research in the area of global cliodynamics that combines integrated system analysis and mathematical modeling of global processes, both in retrospective and perspective mode.
An important line of the Congress was the session called ‘Global socio-cultural evolution. Globalization, regionalization, glocalization’, inspired by Roland Robertson, one of the pioneers in the area of globalization studies, Professor of the University of Aberdeen, Great Britain. The Russian moderator of the session was Olga G. Leonova, Professor of the MGU's Faculty of Global Processes.
The session contributors presented papers on the methods of analysis of sociocultural aspects of globalization, regional aspects of sociocultural dynamics under conditions of globalization, problems of linguistic development in the context of sociocultural globalization; ways to keep civilizational and sociocultural stability under conditions of global interaction of cultures. The session attendees mentioned relevance and insufficient level of scientific elaboration of methodologies and methods for analysis of processes of sociocultural globalization, civilizational aspects of sociocultural globalization and some other important problems.
Methodology and future of global studies were actively discussed at the session ‘Global studies: trends, problems and vision for the future’, moderated by professor Leonid E. Grinin.
The session attendees mentioned relevance and insufficient level of elaboration of some scientific fields and topics, including the following: relation and mutual impact of global and local processes, in particular, challenges arising for some countries and regions in connection with proposed directions and peculiarities of global tendencies; relation of long Kondratiev waves and other global dynamic processes.
An important line of the Congress was the session called ‘New challenges for sustainable development and mechanisms of maintaining global security’(moderated by professor Igor F. Kefeli, Vice-President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Chairman of the Faculty of Globalistics and Culturology of the Baltic State Technical University ‘Voenmeh’).
The Session contributors made reports on the following topics: sustainable development of the global world; methodology of guaranteeing global security; globalization of agrosystems; noospheric constitution for humankind; tendencies and peculiarities of global terrorism; coercion; food safety; political aspects of efforts against global ter-rorism.
The UNESCO Chair (created at the MGU's Faculty of Global Studies last September based on the agreement concluded by Irina Bokova, General Director of UNESCO,and V. A. Sadovnichy, Rector of the Lomonosov MGU, Vice-President of the RAS, member of the RAS hosted the session called ‘Megapolises and challenges of the globalizing world” (moderator – Yuriy N. Sayamov, Chairman of the Department).
A perspective line of the Congress was the session called ‘Foresight and other analytical methods and tools’, chaired by Professor Vladimir G. Budanov, a famous specialist in the area of modeling of global social processes.
Another session was called ‘Complex system analysis and global dynamics analysis’, chaired by Professor Sergey Yu. Malkov. It was mostly dedicated to mathematical modeling of various social processes covering large territories and significant historical periods.
The session contributors particularly mentioned that growing global instability increases relevance of studies in the area of modeling and forecasting of global dynamics. Intensification of crisis phenomena in the global economy is forecasted for the forthcoming 10 years, which is a result of transition from the fifth to the sixth Kondratiev wave. Economic problems will increase social and political tension, which should be considered in strategic planning. Under these conditions, transition from unsustainable model to sustainable model of development must be made to guarantee reduction of presently growing social and economic disproportions. It is necessary to develop methods of qualitative analysis and mathematical modeling of global processes, to increase objectivity and informativity of forecasts.
While sessions of the Congress discussed global problems and processes within one or several related disciplines, interdisciplinary discussions of the above issues were held at round table meetings of the Congress. Professor A. D. Ursulchaired the main round table meeting called ‘Global processes and the origins of noosphere’.
The Congress wrapped up on May 21, by a closing ceremony, where results of all sessions and round table meetings were summarized. Chairmen of sessions presented reports, in succession. The next Congress will be held in 2013 and dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Vladimir I. Vernadsky, great Russian scientist, creator of the theory of noosphere.