Moscow launched the Primakov Readings Youth Session

On November 25, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), held the first day of the Primakov Readings Youth Session attended by 40 young researchers from 17 countries including Russia. The event is organized by the Primakov Center and IMEMO with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation.

The welcoming remarks for the participants were delivered by Feodor Voitolovsky, PhD in Political Sciences, Director of IMEMO RAS, who spoke about the history of the youth track, “The Youth Session was established as a platform for an equal dialogue between prominent scholars and young researchers, which allow not only to hear presentations by their senior colleagues, but also to present their papers and lead discussions. We wanted to bring young leaders from different countries together to continue our dialogue, and I am glad that we have succeeded.”

Victoria Karslieva, Executive Director of the Primakov Center, also welcomed the participants, “Today, you have had the opportunity to introduce yourself to a great academic history. For us, the youth session is important from the point of view of continuity and establishing contacts between you and the best minds of our country. I wish you fruitful work and interesting discussions!”

The opening ceremony was concluded by Maria Khorolskaya, PhD in Political Science, Research Fellow at the IMEMO Department for European Political Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, who gave the participants several advices, “In today’s world, it is very easy to get bogged down in misconceptions and stereotypes about it. There are two main ways to avoid this: science and communication. Today, there will be a chance to combine these two. I encourage you not to use your timely wisely and be active!”

This was followed by a series of expert meetings on topical issues of the international agenda. Fyodor Voitolovsky was the first to take the floor with a speech devoted to the discussion of relations in the Russia-U.S.-China triangle, “It is needed to be understood that relations between the three vertices of this triangle will develop according to what we at IMEMO call a “polycentric” coordinate system. Despite the fact that the emerging world order will not only be polycentric, but will also have a pronounced hierarchy, not everything will depend on what the U.S., China and Russia will do.”

Technological globalization became the topic of the next expert panel discussion. Particularly, Konstantin Bogdanov, PhD in Technical Sciences, Senior Research Fellow at Section of Military-Political Analysis and Research Projects, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), delivered a speech about its current state and prospects for the next few years, “The COVID-19 pandemic, sanctions warfare and international conflicts contribute to the fragmentation of the global technology industry and the emergence of sovereign technology platforms that will interact with each other through neighboring countries.”

For her part, Elena Zinovieva, PhD in Political Science, Deputy Director of the Centre for International Information Security, MGIMO University, touched on the issues of technological sovereignty and explained the Russian stance, “Russia supports the idea of the need to create a single UN treaty to regulate the digital space, which would allow us to work out common rules together with other countries and then extend them to the whole world.”

The last meeting of this day discussed challenges faced by leaders of the developing world. During this session, Sergey Lukonin, PhD in Economics, Head of the IMEMO RAS Sector of Economy and Politics of China, spoke about the reasons for China’s economic reforms, their results, and China’s key challenges, “The main challenge faced by the Chinese economy is that it has become so complex it is impossible to predict how a decision to regulate one area may affect others.”

In his turn, Alexey Kupriyanov, PhD in History, Head of the IMEMO RAS Center of the Indo-Pacific Region, paid attention to the trends that could be identified in India, “One of the country’s key problems is soil depletion. The country has already banned the export of wheat and rice, voluntarily giving up its leading position in the supply of these products abroad.”

Each expert panel discussion was followed by a series of presentations by the participants of the youth session on the topics of a previous talk.