Politics

In St. Petersburg, at the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, the third module of the All-Russian Program for the Development of the Personnel Management Reserve in Science, Technology, and Higher Education took place. Among its participants were leaders of universities, scientific organizations, regional authorities, and research divisions of domestic technological companies.

In my view, it is insufficient to simply liken the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) to groundbreaking technologies of the past (from the printing press to nuclear energy), which significantly impacted global development and international relations. Due to the very nature of this technology, future qualitative progress in AI development will signify the potential for transformative breakthroughs across all fields of scientific knowledge and technology, unparalleled in human history and fraught with serious geopolitical consequences.

The international forum ”Mineral Resources as the Foundation of National Sovereignty: Workforce and Innovation Environment” has just concluded at Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University. There is no doubt that mineral resources are the foundation of humanity’s economic and technological progress, while also serving as a crucial factor for sustainable development.

It is now clear that after the end of the Cold War, the world entered a global transformation. Its meaning and significance have been understood in different ways. Western elites assumed that globalization would automatically expand their sphere of control and dominance by absorbing the ”Soviet legacy,” for which they did not even have to fight. Much was not understood and we, indulging in convergence illusions, thought that we would ”integrate” into the West, which would undergo a radical positive transformation.

Many people feel understandable psychological and cultural discomfort with our political and geopolitical break with Europe. It would be more accurate to say, with the West, because Oswald Spengler in his ”The Decline of the Western World” no less justifiably wrote that Europe is ”an empty sound” and that in cultural and civilisational terms we can speak only of the West and Russia.

The critical geopolitical context created by the crisis in relations between Moscow and the collective West gave the Russia-Africa Summit a breakthrough character. We witnessed numerous attempts by Washington and its allies to drive a wedge between Russia and the Global South. In fact, the West has become obsessed with this task, in the solution of which it saw the key to preserving its global dominance, which ”tripped” over the aloof position of the World Majority.

One of the topics that attract the attention of the participants of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum will be the discussion of how the global food agenda is seen in the new geopolitical conditions. The deterioration of the situation on food markets and the growing number of hungry people in the world have been registered by the specialized structures of the UN system for several years already. In the last year, the problem has been exacerbated by sharp price hikes, including those for fuel and fertilizers.

Part one of this article was published on May 27, 2023. You can read it by clicking here.

The international situation at the present stage is characterized by a high degree of polarization and turbulence. It was a consequence of the U.S. attempts to restore the unipolar world order through confrontation with Russia and China at the same time. Despite the apparent absence of a long-term strategy for such a ”two-front war” in Washington, the U.S. leadership continues to raise the stakes, especially in terms of support for Ukraine, which was turned into an environment for anti-Russian policy. The ”summit of democracies” held at the end of March 2023 demonstrated the U.S.

The dynamics of events on the world stage today are characterized by the ongoing polarization and disintegration of the fabric of international cooperation. The relevant processes have been initiated by Western countries as part of a hybrid (including sanctions and economic) war against Russia, launched clearly without a sober assessment of the situation and the prospects for its outcome.