Book
Russia and Pakistan in the Middle East: Approaches to Security in the Gulf
This report is the result of a collaborative study performed by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI). The report is devoted to analyzing the role of Russia and Pakistan in Middle Eastern processes as well as the two states’ policies in the Persian Gulf subregion. Experts determine the areas in which the strategic and diplomatic interests of the two states converge. This work also examines Russian and Pakistani positions towards regional competition, influence of external actors and prospects for cooperation in the sphere of security in the Persian Gulf.
The article examines current trends in the process of national codifications of international private law (PIL) on the example of countries in Asia and Africa. The choice of the subject of the study is due to the fact that the PIL of these countries is least known to the Russian reader. Meanwhile, the process of codification of PIL is global, covering all regions of the world, including Asia and Africa. The legislation of these countries demonstrates the whole variety of forms and methods of codification of PIL, the whole range of contradictions and problems that arise when developing new laws and modernizing old ones. The article concluded that in the codification of MPEs in African and Asian countries, the intrabranch form dominates, with a considerable number of legislators preferring the intrabranch integrated method; there is a direct borrowing of the European models adopted many years ago, often without their adaptation to current trends in the development of the PIL; many laws on PIL in Islamic countries have a religious tint, which may hinder the normal development of cross-border private relations.
In a previous article, The Coming Epoch of New Coalitions: Possible Scenarios of the Near Future (Grinin and Korotayev 2011), it was preliminarily demonstrated that the turbulent events of late 2010 and 2011 in the Arab World may well be regarded as a start of the global reconfiguration. The subsequent events have confirmed this supposition. That is why in the present article we develop this important theme. The article offers a thorough analysis of the internal conditions of Arab countries on the eve of revolutionary events, as well as causes and consequences of the Arab Revolutions. The article also offers an analysis of similar historical World System reconfigurations starting with the sixteenth-century Reformation. The analysis is based on the theory (developed by the authors) of the periodical catch-ups experienced by the political component of the World System that tends to lag behind the World System economic component. Thus, we show that the asynchrony of development of various functional subsystems of the World System is a cause of the synchrony of major political changes. In other words, within the globalization process, political transformations tend to lag far behind economic transformations. And such lags cannot constantly increase, the gaps are eventually bridged, but in not quite a smooth way. The article also suggests an explanation why the current catch-up of the World System political component started in the Arab World.
The article analyzes the Italian Republic foreign policy stance on the Syrian civil war. The internal and external factors affecting the official Rome foreign policy decision-making process examined. Particular attention in this context is paid to the effects of the global financial-economic crisis which converted Italy into one of the «sick counties» of the European Union.