The traditional Christian concept of the relationship between the man and nature holds that the latter «is designed» to provide the former means for survival and development. Yet such a view has been proven inadequate by the environmental challenges to the humankind that emerged in the XXth century. Expectations for the Reason to continuously improve conditions for living on the Earth are in fact leading to an impasse.
        It is unrealistic to think of developing an «artificial environment» for the man to inhabit due to the practical impossibility of isolating a «comfortable segment» of the biosphere from the rest of it – unstable and unsuitable for living.
        One of the most promising trends in re-thinking the man-nature relationship is therefore the concept of «co-evolution» whereby the humankind ceases challenging the natural laws and processes, but rather finds ways to adapt to them. This will require elaboration of a set of «eco-ethical» principles including increased environment protection expenses by the developed countries of the West.

A Global Crisis of the Biosphere?

        The currently exhausted state of the biosphere poses a direct threat to the survival of the humankind within the next 100 years. The biosphere is no longer capable of compensating for the drain of natural resources which is put on the biosphere by the human activity. The main causes of this biospheric overextension include the overuse of land for rural and industrial purposes, the excessive consumption of energy by industrialized countries and the upward demographic trend.
        The ecological threat is aggravated by the lack of consensus within the international community on the ways to reduce the pace of natural resources consumption destabilizing the biosphere. Industrialized states, striving to maintain high economic growth, refuse to stop «free-riding» on the common resources of the biosphere. Nor are the developing countries willing to limit their rates of population growth and undertake effective measures to protect the environment.
        However, the recent UNDP proposals on establishing a sound international environmental regime create grounds for a just distribution of the rights to consume common resources of the biosphere. An important step towards such a regime could be establishing a Global Ecological Organization which will need certain supranational powers to monitor and maintain transition toward a sustainable mode of world economic and social development.

Migration Trends and International Security

        The scope of international migration flows is constantly increasing. Yet, with the advance of globalization, international migration acquires new features and implications. Currently for its major part, migration occurs between the developing world and the industrialized nations of the West. The main motive forces of migration are governments of the economically poor sending countries, seeking to alleviate their economic problems, along with transnational criminal cartels gaining large profits from trafficking people, drugs and other illegal commodities. Such countries as China also seek to expand their economic and political influence abroad by exploiting the ethnic loyalty of Chinese diasporas.
        Apart from benefiting criminal networks, international migration leads to increased ethnic tensions and causes serious problems of economic and social adaptation of migrants in receiving countries. Compact communities populated by migrants become sources of illegal economic and social activity.
        Currently widespread measures to counter the negative impact of migration, such as tightening visa policies or assimilating migrants in receiving countries, are unlikely to produce results in the long term. It is more important for the West to combat poverty and socially disastrous conditions in the migrant sending regions of the world.

New Approaches to Theorizing Borders

        The beginning of 1990s was marked by the emerging understanding of inadequate explanatory power of traditional approaches to border studies. Viewing borders as merely a result of power relations between states perceived as unitary actors has proved to be insufficient to account for the rapidly changing reality and gave an impetus to the variety of post-modernist approaches to analyzing borders.
        The first group of these approaches emphasizes the evolution of territorial identities and the center-periphery relationship as factors in border formation. The second group encompasses geopolitical determinants such as the emergence of «gated communities» and the impact of cultural differences on establishing borders. Security considerations are also at the core of this group of approaches whereby students of borders seek to explain changes in border transparency and trade regimes. The third group explores the influence of perceptions of the regional divisions in contemporary world both at the level of political elites and ordinary people. Other approaches analyze borders on the basis of a mix of such factors as policy, perceptions and practice of non-governmental actors.

Western Concepts of Political Globalization: No Outlook for a General Theory

«Games of Notions»: A New «Regionalist Geometry» in the European Context

International Ecological Networks: Who Is Getting the Upper Hand?

Politics, Law and Business in International Ecological Relations

The Political Anatomy of the G8

Networking

The Forum strengthens the academic community

Theory of International Relations in Russia: Why Schools of Thought Linger?

Persona grata

Faces and personalities

Andrei A. Kokoshin «A Strategy of Continuous Success»

Cold mind for a hot issue

Discussion

Turkmenistan’s Neutrality

«The Turkmenbashi Formula»: Pro et Contra

Scholarly Community

Ethno-Politics and Security. The Forum’s International Workshop in Krasnodar

Scripta Manent

Reviews

A Long Solo by Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein. The Decline of American Power. The U.S. in a Chaotic World. New York – London: The New Press, 2003. 324 p.

Irresponsible Power and the Illusion of Force. Educating Politicians as an Analytical Framework in the United States
Seyom Brown. The Illusion of Control. Force and Foreign Policy in the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2003. 187 p.

The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy: «Globalists» vs. «Hegemonists»
Bob Woodward. Bush at War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 376 p.

Oriental Studies in Russia: A Fruit of the Siberian Branch
V.G. Datsyshen, G.A. Onder. The Sayan Puzzle: Uryankhay Krai and Russia-Tyva Relations in 1911-1921. Kyzyl, 2003. 284 p.
V.G.Datsyshen. Contemporary History of China: Textbook. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University, 2003. 300 p.
O.A. Omelchenko. Social and Economic History of Xinjiang (1948-1978). Barnaul: Altai State University, 2002. 225 p.
K.L. Syroezhkin. Myths and Reality of Ethnic Separatism in China and Central Asian Security. Almaty: Daik-Press, 2003. 733 p.

In brevi

A potentia ad actum

New doctorships and career promotions

In Memoriam

Anatoly A. Zlobin (1932-2003)

Contents and Summaries

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