A major paradigm shift is under way in contemporary social sciences. The growing concern with the role of chaos and instability in socio-economic and political dynamics encourages scholars to introduce terminology, concepts and methods of complexity science into their research. Whether this could advance the explanatory and predictable power of social theories will become increasingly clear as the discussion on the applicability of chaos studies methods to socio-economic and political systems is unfolding.
          However, already at this point, it can be argued that social systems experience periodical bifurcations where only a minor external impact could result in a dramatic change of direction in which a system is developing. Unstable conditions could occur in such "non-linear" systems as the World-Wide Web or transnational terrorist networks.
          Complexity sciences methods (including mathematical modeling) can also help explain the past evolution of social systems and determine their susceptibility to "chaotization". On the whole, complexity science has a potential of becoming a "meta-discipline" that will explore chaos-related patterns across the whole spectrum of particular fields of socio-economic and political inquiry.

Integration and Engagement as Instruments of Global Governance

         Integration and engagement have been practiced by West European countries since 1950s as both a response to outside challenges and an attempt to include the expanding number of neighboring states into the European system of transnational governance. "Europeanization" implies not only "negative" (that is, eliminating barriers), but also "positive" integration whereby supranational bodies enjoy considerable influence over decisions made at the national level. For EU members themselves, this means that the Union’s system of multilevel governance has a direct bearing on citizens’ everyday lives and well-being. Moreover, non-state actors (both businesses and non-profit organizations) from different EU countries have been successfully building transnational coalitions that shape "political networks" – the core of the EU system of governance. These networks, often supported financially and politically by the European Commission, affect both decision making at the national level and modify political culture within the EU.
          Some observers view European integration as a way to limit the reach and pervasiveness of globalization that is being fuelled by American economic and socio-political values. However, EU political networks actually stimulate economic competition and prevent national governments from constraining the internal (and sometimes also external) market liberalization which often enhances social disparities and arouses discontent with the "deficit of democracy" within the EU system of governance. So far, as viewed by some of its member-states and neighbors, the European Union has failed to provide a viable alternative to the American version of globalization.

A «Deter and Prevent Terrorism» Strategy

         Responding to the terrorist threat requires innovative approaches that cannot be simply built upon the previous experience of US national security policies. Deterring terrorists has less in common with deterring the Soviet Union during the Cold War than one might suppose. For example, rational models have proven ineffective in explaining and predicting terrorists’ behavior. While both the USSR and the US were trying to avoid conflicts where nuclear retaliation could be considered as an option, terrorist groups will in all likelihood use nuclear weapons (or other WMD) once they get their hands on it. The nature of modern terrorism therefore highlights the need for more region-specific research focused on the history, culture, contemporary political and economic institutions in the areas populated by Muslims and other developing conflict-ridden societies.
          It is important to be able to make a distinction between radical "irreconcilable" Islamists and those who sympathize with them but can still be "talked out" of supporting terror. For this purpose, studying the Islamic religious psychology should be given priority over building formal models of terrorist leaders’ "rational" behavior. For example, successful deterrence of large-scale terrorist attacks for a considerable amount of time could undermine the widespread belief among terrorist recruits in their "right cause". It could also be noted that a "world Islamic jihad" is competing with the nationalist sentiment in the minds of those susceptible to bin-Laden-type propaganda. Partial accommodation of this sentiment by the West could remove plenty of potential al-Qaeda supporters from bin Laden’s camp.
          Orthodox and – especially – moderate Muslims could become Western allies in combating terror. To facilitate dialogue, the West should avoid displaying intransigence with regard to the Islamic culture however "undemocratic" and incompatible with Western values it might seem.

Global Governance Studies in Western Political Science

Internal Crisis Management in NATO’s History

Conflict Potential on the Russian-Mongol Border in Tuva

CONTINUING THE DISCUSSION

The Substance of World Politics as a Discipline

         The increasingly popular notion of "world politics" in the international studies discourse has spurred vivid discussions on the meaning of the term as opposed to traditional notions of "international relations" and "international political economy". Attempts to distinguish world-political research from the more conventional fields of inquiry have been focused on the concepts of a growing diversity of actors, new international trends and the importance of subjective national (regional) research agendas.
          The rise of powerful non-state actors (both legitimate and illegitimate, such as transnational terrorist groups) has rendered obsolete most concepts and theories centered around inter-state (international) relations. The notion of world politics therefore seeks to subsume the whole variety of contemporary relationships that transcend national borders. This notion also seeks to account for such important trends as the blurring of distinction between foreign and domestic policies of states, the dissolution of "absolute sovereignty" and the "power shift" whereby "soft" power tools become increasingly effective compared to traditional instruments. The "global governance" agenda in both research and political practice also goes beyond IR and IPE discourses and requires new terminology to account for such phenomena as the formation of a "global civil society".
          However promising, the world-political discourse faces a number of challenges. Its main problem is caused by the fact that the future of transnationalization and interdependence is uncertain and "global governance" is likely to be superseded by "superpower governance". It will be the changing reality, where different trends collide, which will have a final say on whether the notion of world politics will remain relevant or give way to other concepts.

Are We Arguing about the «Right» Issues?

PERSONA GRATA

Images and Personalities

«My Marxism is not that of Soviet textbooks»

Five Years in Voronezh. Notes on Winter and Summer Institutes of International Relations

Who Needs Such Belarus?

The «Lukashenka Phenomenon» and the Russia–Belarus Union

SCRIPTA MANENT

Reviews

Networks and States in World Politics
Anne-Marie Slaughter. A New World Order. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004. 341 p.

Joseph Nye’s «Soft» Security
Joseph S. Nye. Soft Power. The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. 192 p.

Starting Wars «Rightly»
Steve A. Yetiv. Explaining Foreign Policy: U.S. Decision-Making and the Persian Gulf War. Baltimore – London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 288 p.

The «Fatigue Syndrome»ѕ from Enlarging Democracy
William E. Odom, Robert Dujarric. America's Inadvertent Empire. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2004. 285 p.

American Ideas and Russian Interpretations
Andrei P. Tsygankov. Whose World Order? Russia’s Perception of American Ideas after the Cold War. Notre Dame (Indiana): University of Notre Dame, 2004. 205 p.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Area Studies in the Context of World-Political Discourse

A POTENTIA AD ACTUM

New Doctorships

In brevi

Contents and Summaries

Our authors