News

On Wednesday, 15 December 2021, The Department of International Relations and International Laboratory on World Order Studies and the New Regionalism of National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) heldthe thirtieth session of Eurasian Online Seminarin the form of discussion panel. The topic for discussion was the presentation of the Special Issue of the Russian Politics journal (Volume 6 (2021): Issue 4 (Oct 2021) on Russian Foreign Policy, edited by Iain Ferguson, Andrej Krickovic, Alexander Lukin and Richard Sakwa.

On December 8, 2021, the School of International Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University within the framework of the permanent online seminars «Contemporary Area Studies», organized a meeting with Anna Belikova, chief specialist of the external communications service of the RT TV channel, lecturer at the Faculty of World Politics, Lomonosov Moscow State University and Faculty of International Regional Studies in RANEPA.

On December 11^th, Vitaly Yermakov, CCEIS expert, spoke at the RAND Business Leaders Forum.
Vitaly’s topic was “COP-26 and Russia”, and his main points were as follows: 
- The results of COP-26 have demonstrated that the tradeoffs between growth and climate mitigation are real and difficult causing the international politics of climate change to lead to disunity in case of a radical and hasty transition. 
- An attempt to shift the policy agenda at COP-26 away from demand-side measures to supply-side pressure and restrictions, declaring coal the main “enemy” and casting any investment incentives for hydrocarbons as “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” has run into the opposition of the developing countries that need to address energy poverty and maintain economic growth.
- Power crunch in China and gas crunch in Europe are powerful reminders that energy transition is going to be costly and volatile and is going to lead to political upheavals.
- Elections will be lost by politicians who placed their bets on the green agenda but failed to deliver energy security. 
- Russia’s energy strategy is evolving in response to climate change agenda but the official documents like ES-2035 are outdated and are no longer relevant. Russia’s recent policy guidance suggests the readiness for course corrections but also the intent to protect its vital interests. This results in pragmatic approach to energy transition based on Russia’s strategic strengths and free of ideological dogmas. At the same time, Russia’s leadership has realized that it must be actively involved in shaping the global climate agenda. Russia’s pledge of reaching net zero by 2060 will be achieved via a combination of processes, involving energy efficiency, greater role of natural gas combined with CCUS followed by a gradual introduction of hydrogen, new generation of nuclear, and increasing the absorption capacity of Russia’s forests. 

Deputy Director of the CCEIS Dmitry Suslov described a new direction for the development of U.S. foreign policy focusing on Biden's historical role as a follower of Trump. However, Biden is using a more systematic approach to implementing the chosen paradigm than his predecessor.
The main theses:
- We see a rejection of the universalization of the American-centric world order- Change of the vector of U.S. foreign policy development to rivalry with global rivals - China and Russia, which later became a new paradigm
- The previous foreign policy course has been replaced by a struggle against transnational threats and changing rhetoric towards European allies to a more benevolent one
- The leading U.S. forces are aimed at deterring China, consolidating the anti-Chinese coalition, weakening the trend of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing, and confrontation with Russia
- The U.S. strives to increase its presence, circle of partners, and military and political obligations in Asia

The CCEIS is happy to share some crucial news. Director of the CCEIS Anastasia Likhacheva has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics. Vasily Kashin is now the new director of the CCEIS. He is a leading Sinologist, an expert on military-strategic issues, the former deputy director of the CCEIS, and the head of the sector of international military-political and military-economic issues. At the CCEIS, Vasily Kashin was in charge of multiple applied research projects. He also led a team of employees and postdocs, which launched a series of regular monitoring sessions on various aspects of China's development.

S.A.Karaganov leaves the post of dean, but remains the scientific director of the Faculty of WE&IA.

On October 27, an online presentation of the book by Professor Yuqing Xing (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan) was held by the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) in cooperation with the Department of World Economy of the Higher School of Economics. The presentation was dedicated to revealing the phenomenon of the Chinese export miracle through the prism of global value chains. The discussion touched upon the issues of the Chinese experience for emerging economies, the current realities of economic cycles, and the factor of US-China decoupling and its impact on the global economy.

On October 16, a research fellow of the CCEIS, Egor Prokhin, presented  his report in the 5th International Conference on E-Business and Internet entitled «Technology Breakthrough 4.0: Public Policy as an Integral Element of a Smart City's Development» held at the National University of Singapore. Egor Prokhin’s presentation has been recognized as the best in its section. 

On Wednesday, October 27, 2021, the Department of International Relations and International Laboratory on World Order Studies and the New Regionalism of the National Research University Higher School of Economics held the twenty-eight session of Eurasian Online Seminar. The seminar was held in the form of discussion panel. The topic for discussion was “The Politization of the Covid 19 Pandemic: Views from various Countries and Regions”.

Lev Sokolshchik (Associate Professor at the School of International Regional Studies, Research Fellow at CCEIS), has been working as a supervisor of the international research group on the problem of a new possible arms control treaty since September 1, 2021. The group consist of young specialists from Japan, Iceland, the US, working in the fields of diplomacy, defense, and negotiations.