
December 5-7, 2024, X All-Russian Congress of Political Scientists with International Participation “Russia in a Polycentric World Order: Challenges and New Development Paradigms” was held in Moscow. The Anniversary Forum of the Russian Political Science Association (RPSA) – the largest gathering of the Russian political science community – was held at MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. Various discussion formats – plenary, thematic and special sessions, roundtables, sessions of RPSA research committees, meetings of RPSA youth department – brought together about 2 thousand participants from 50 regions of Russia. Political scientists from 46 foreign countries also took part in the sessions. The focus was on the problems of transformation of the modern world order and new trends in the political dynamics of countries and regions of the world, strategic priorities of Russia's development. Special attention was paid to discussing key promising directions of political science development.
The first plenary session devoted to the international political topics was opened by the RPSA President, Professor Oksana Gaman-Golutvina, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The session was also addressed by the representatives of IMEMO – Academician Natalya Ivanova, Academician Alexey Arbatov, Academician Vasily Mikheev (Report “Analyzing International Relations through the Prism of ‘Friendly and Unfriendly Countries’: Relations between Russia and China”).
At the meeting of the Russian Political Science Association, which concluded the first day, the winners of the 2024 scientific papers competition were recognized. The 1st degree diploma in the nomination “Interdisciplinary Studies” was awarded to the monograph “Identity: Personality, Society, Politics. New Contours of the Research Field / ed. by Irina Semenenko. M.: Ves’ Mir, 2023”, prepared at IMEMO.
The sessions of the sections and roundtables were held on December 6. Such thematic areas as new centers of the world order, value aspects of modern development and the role of culture and religion, digital politics, political and psychological aspects of modern development, the image of Russia's future and the value attitudes of young people, and the analysis of identity as a resource for social development, attracted great attention and special interest of the participants. More than 30 people applied for participation in the meeting of the Research Committee on Political Identity (IC-18). The meeting was held in the format of a roundtable on the topic “Development Policy and Identity Politics”. IMEMO employees spoke at the first thematic session of the roundtable on the topic “Contours of the Research Field: Current Agenda of Scientific Discussion”.
Opening the session, Irina Semenenko, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. of Science (Politics), in her report “Development Policy: Horizons of Identity” raised the question of the urgent need to conceptualize political development taking into account the changes in the structure of the modern world order and proposed the interpretation of development policy as the promotion of a forward-looking vision of social development and management practices correlated with the public demand for security, manageability and social well-being. Drivers of such policies are institutions, interests, ideas and identities; therefore, the growing interest in identity as a resource for social development is natural. Special attention was paid to the need to focus research attention on the analysis of the subjective dimension of politics and the political; the traditions of such research were established at IMEMO in the context of studying of mass consciousness back in the 1970s and 1980s. At present, public and academic debates are focused on “sustainable development”; the promotion of new value-political projects in the international context indicates the need for alternative discourses and narratives capable of reflecting the diversity of political and social development trajectories.
As emphasized in his report “Conceptualization of Development: Political Perspective” Vladimir Lapkin, Lead Researcher, Cand. of Science (Chemistry), the imperative of understanding contemporary social and political development dictates to the political researcher the tasks of “developmental constructs” (a concept introduced in his time by Harold Lasswell), developing a model of development offered to society, filling it with clear images of the future. All this, in turn, presupposes the researcher's ability to move from a static approach (as a sequence of states) to a processual and evolutionary one in understanding development. Effective interest groups promote certain development projects in the policy field and, within their framework, impose on the target community their ideas about the meanings, values, goals and instruments of development. But development is a special kind of movement, a special process, characteristic only of objects with the qualities of systematicity and subjectivity. Therefore, the “developmental constructs” are associated with contradictions both between the sensual ability to perceive development as a continuous process and the mental tendency to exclude the time factor from its description, and between the subjectivity and particularity of development projects and (at the same time) their claim to universality.
The report of Evgeniy Rashkovsky, Chief Research Fellow, Dr. of Science (History), was devoted to the topic “Political Science and Religious Studies – two Areas of Socio-Humanitarian Knowledge (Theoretical Issues)”. In the report it was noted that religious studies sheds a special light on the eternal Tolstoy's question: “What do people live by?” In other words, on the feedback of the internal, intimate experience of people with their collective ideas, interests, emotions, institutions, prejudices and passions. Current research on political identity deals precisely with this kind of feedback. Furthermore, without taking into account the peculiarities of the subject content of specific religions, it is hardly possible to understand the political realities of today, and moreover – in the “reverse perspective” of the world historical experience. And, what is very important from the political science point of view: the above-mentioned principles of religious structures that have crystallized over the centuries are not atemporal, not frozen, but somehow involved in the flows of historical development and influence each other. This is especially characteristic of the current era of technological growth, intensive informational and ideological interactions and mass migrations.
Tatiana Khaynatskaya, Junior Research Fellow, in her report “Environmental Component of Urban Development Policy: Strategies and Actors” analyzed the environmental component of urban development policy on the example of the city of Vienna. The main strategies of urban development and environmental directions in them were identified, the range of subjects was determined and it was concluded that the combination of the environmental component of development policy and identity policy allows not only to cope with environmental challenges, but also to strengthen social cohesion, forming a unique urban culture. Environmental initiatives not only contribute to improving the quality of the urban environment, but also influence residents' sense of belonging to a place, their values and cultural preferences, and strengthen local identity – a significant intangible resource for community development.
The second session of the roundtable “Development Policy and Identity Politics: International Dimension” was opened by Irina Prokhorenko, Head of the Department of International Political Problems, Dr. of Science (Politics). In her presentation on “Development Forecasting in UN activities” the speaker dwelt on the problems of development issues in the UN agenda, identification and formulation of big challenges that are potentiated by globalization processes as problems of world development, the paradigm of sustainable development and the dynamics of the concept of sustainable development in terms of key differences between the Millennium Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, the subjectivity of the international community and the UN in the policy of world development. Emphasis was placed on the determining influence of the logic of sustainable development on the objectives, focus and parameters of UN foresight studies. A brief analysis of statistical information resources and the process of forecasting on the platform of a universal international intergovernmental organization was also presented, noting the difficulties of collecting and systematizing national statistics, developing global SDG indicators, and monitoring progress in achieving the SDGs.
The role of open access UN forecasts in the new conditions of the global digital space was emphasized, namely in the formation of a broad discursive field in which various state and non-state participants of international life discuss interrelated trends and problems of global development, global risks and threats, and where not only ideas but also norms diffuse, new and alternative discourses and narratives concerning global development and futuristic images of the world are born, and a global identity is formed and affirmed.
In the report “Macropolitical Identity on the Path of Development Policy” by Tatiana Popadeva, Research Fellow, Cand. of Science (Politics), who also spoke at the session, the influence of Slavic identity on the development policy of states in the Balkans was analyzed. The presentation noted that a comparison of the cases of Serbia and Croatia allows us to observe a certain shift away from the Slavic identity in favor of territorial identity, which is accompanied by the erosion of previous guidelines. However, in Serbia and Croatia there is still a demand for reconciliatory constructs that reduce ethno-political conflict. In this regard, the Slavic macropolitical identity can become a mechanism for consolidation of Serbian and Croatian societies.
Marina Strezhneva, Chief Research Fellow, Dr. of Sciences (Politics), took part in the work of the section of the Research Committee on Political Governance (RC-14) “Political Governance in the Context of Global Changes: the Problem of Sustainability of Modern States”. She made a report on the topic “Changes in Multilevel Economic Management in the European Union”. The speaker focused on the implementation of the program “Next generation EU, NGEU”, a pandemic economic recovery plan, which, as her research confirms, indicates the formation of a fundamentally new method of multilevel management, based on the European budget. At the current stage, the new (budgetary) form of governance plays a key role in maintaining the objectives of the ecological transition, laid down in the European Green Deal on the political agenda of Brussels. In general, the elements of fiscal integration that have emerged combine two models (one based on maintaining the fiscal discipline of member states, the other on transfers and joint debts). One of the consequences of the emerging process of fiscal integration is the acquisition of new powers by supranational institutions (the Commission appears as a kind of quasi-treasury of the EU).
At the session in the format of the main theme of the Congress (OT-3.2) “New Theoretical Models of Political Development”, Maxim Sigachev, Research Fellow, Cand. of Science (Politics), spoke, substantiating in the report "Neo-Integralism as a Development Model" the thesis on the need to combine tradition and modernity (contemporaneity) as the basis for sovereign development policy, implying a plurality of development paths (civilizational, ethnic, national). It was emphasized that the integration of traditional identity into the modern world makes it possible to move away from the idea of one single model of world development, obligatory for all mankind, in favor of the idea of a diversity of alternative models of world order. The components of traditional identity as an intangible resource of modern development are: 1) language (linguistic identity); 2) religion (religious-confessional identity); 3) ethnicity (ethnic identity); 4) culture (cultural-civilizational identity); 5) regional-spatial (geopolitical) identity; 6) history (historical identity). The report cited the country cases of China and Japan as specific examples of using traditional identity as a basis for development policy. To substantiate neo-integralism as a development model that overcomes antagonism within the dichotomies of tradition and modernity, universalism and particularism, materialism and idealism, the speaker turned to the principle of “conflictual complementarity” formulated by Evgeniy Rashkovsky.
At the roundtable meeting “Opportunities and Threats of the Digital Society” (KS-6) the report “Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for Identity in the Digital Society” was delivered by Ilya Udovenko, Senior Researcher, Cand. of Science (Pedagogics). The discourse of constructing new sources of identity based on the role structure of the inanimate “subject” formed in the modern digital environment was considered. One of such sources is the dynamic imitation of a person and his behavior, the use of which is becoming more and more demanded in electoral processes. On the one hand, imitations of the activity of political figures have already become a routine practice, on the other hand, models of simulating the behavior of voters are being developed to ensure high accuracy of forecasting of the results of real elections. Further deepening of these processes in the absence of control over the mechanisms of expression of will, carried out in the digital environment, contains the risk of replacing political participation by its systemic imitation.
Within the framework of the meeting of the Section (IC-3.2) of the Research Committee on the Study of World Politics, Elizaveta Matiukhova, Junior Research Fellow, made a presentation. Her report “New – Old Horizons of German Development Policy” examined the potential and possibilities of migration in the socio-economic development of modern states on the example of cooperation between Germany and third countries. It was noted that in response to demographic and migration challenges Germany is not only deeply studying the experience of other countries on migration regulation, but also develops new approaches and publishes guidelines on these issues, in particular through the formation of independent expert commissions. Special attention was paid to a relatively new instrument of external regulation of migration policy in Germany – the so-called migration and mobility partnerships based on the “triple win” approach. It was concluded that the aim of these partnerships is considered to be not only deportation, but also the search for qualified personnel, which the country currently needs.
Within the framework of the Section (OT-13.2) Digital Politics: Power, Polities, Institutional Communities, Maria Shpak, Senior Research Assistant, made a presentation “The Role of Digitalization of Political Communication in Modern Electoral Processes (Based on the Presidential Campaign of 2023 in Argentina)”. The author showed that digital transformation has an impact on political, in particular electoral, processes. In the context of mediatization of politics – the increasing role of media in political life and the degree of their influence on organizations, institutions and political actors – various types of political activity, such as participation in election campaigns, acquire a media dimension. Today, traditional media and new media (social networks, digital platforms) act as the main space for the realization of electoral campaigns. At the same time, the importance of new social media as a tool for campaigning and mobilization of supporters is steadily growing. Election campaigns unfolding in the digital media space can be assessed taking into account the communication strategies used by candidates, election results, the dynamics of socio-economic development, domestic and foreign policy of the country.
In the framework of the meeting (CS-2) BRICS in the Context of Global Transformation, Alexandra Khatkevich, Junior Research Fellow, delivered a report “Instrumental Characteristics of Science Diplomacy of the BRICS Countries”. Today such a system of international interactions as science diplomacy (SD) is an object of research, analytical works, and discussions in the space of political discourse. One of the key questions raised within the context of this issue is the advisability of the development of science diplomacy for the foreign policy of states. The author presents the results of a comparative study of the conceptual foundations and practices of SD in the BRICS countries, aimed at identifying the characteristics and peculiarities of the SD strategies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This work focuses on the instrumental characteristics of the SD of these countries.
The following IMEMO employees also took part in the Congress and made presentations: Sergey Oznobishchev, Head of the Sector of Military-Political Analysis and Research Projects, Cand. of Science (History), Alexander Nikitin, Chief Research Fellow, Dr. of Sciences (Politics), Uliana Artamonova, Research Fellow, Cand. of Science (Politics), Vasily Klimov, Research Fellow, Cand. of Science (Politics), Sergey Rastoltsev, Junior Research Fellow, Alexander Pavlov, Junior Research Fellow.
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