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Great powers’ competition in the 21st century:
Russian approaches and Russian discourse

Borishpolets K.P.,

Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), Moscow, Russia, kpmgimo@gmail.com

elibrary_id: 639896 | ORCID: 0000-0002-3114-1573 | RESEARCHER_ID: ABF-6848-2021

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2022.01.12

Rubric: Political Discourse

For citation:

Borishpolets K.P. Great powers’ competition in the 21st century: Russian approaches and Russian discourse. – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.01.12

The article was supported by a grant from the International Studies Institute at MGIMO University, (Project No. 1921-01-07) as part of the “Analysis and Forecasting the Evolution of International Relations in the Context of a Changing Technology” project.

Abstract

The growing uncertainty about global political trends increases the relevance of the study of the current interaction of great powers as a competition for influence in international relations. It is defined by turbulence of post Cold War world, decrease in capabilities of wide consent of world’s future configuration and growing cases of military power demonstration, including by permanent members of the UN Security Council. The author takes as conceptual premise that competition of great powers is more about problematics of international relations than about strategic studies, and that it develops under the conditions of transition state of international environment, when special role of the great powers is often treated as anachronism. Methodology of the study is based on analysis and synthesis of Russian foreign policy discourse, comparative approach and elements of system approach have been applied, that are used for the evaluation of assumptions of leading Russian researches about competitive and cooperation types foreign policy strategies of leading world powers. Several authors’s conclusions in relation to understanding by Russian side of priorities of great powers in the sphere of global security, conflict settlement, policy towards CIS and Arctic region, perspectives of cooperation between USA and China in bilateral and regional formats are made on the grounds of official documents and academic publications. The article pays considerable attention to the views of Russian specialists on contradictions in world order regulation after 2020. The question that the author seeks to answer is: does Russian scientific elite estimates challenge of great powers as threshold of global military conflict or assumes that factors of mutual concernment in cooperation predominate over confrontational challenges. 

Keywords

global politics, great powers, international cooperation, international competition, world order.

 Full Text 

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