Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft

Russia’s experience over the last 10 years illustrates the concerns at the heart of the Foresight project. Having left behind the economic and political turbulence of the 1990s, Russia is a country on the rise. With a booming economy and a renewed sense of political confidence, it is determined to play a significant role in international affairs. But while Russia is increasingly considered an important global player, its re-emergence on the world stage raises a number of difficult questions. Above all, what is Russia’s blueprint for the future and how is this blueprint coloured by Russian perceptions of its culture, history and identity? Will Russia’s rise have destabilising consequences for the international system? And, conversely, how will Russia’s incorporation into the global economy impact on key cultural, economic and political developments inside Russia?

The “Foresight Russia” symposium explored these questions by comparing and contrasting Russian and non-Russian approaches to three particular global challenges: identity and governance in an age of globalisation; the role of resource-rich countries in the international economy; and nuclear nonproliferation in a changing security context. These challenges, though common to other players in our increasingly interdependent world, have a particular relevance to Russia - home to over 170 different ethnic groups, with a GDP highly dependent on energy resources, and responsible, together with the United States, for the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons. Russian preferences and concerns will therefore need to be considered carefully in any efforts to reach international solutions to these challenges.
Following the presidential elections and transfer of power in Russia, the Moscow symposium offered a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the new government’s strategies and perspectives on these challenges, and to compare and contrast these with perspectives from other parts of the world.