The asynchronicity of the present world order manifests itself not only in the spheres of finance, technology, or institutions, but to no lesser degree in the realm of direct human communication. Despite the end of the unipolar moment, representatives of the World Majority paradoxically continue to communicate with one another in English—a language foreign to each of them. Moreover, it is not the English of H. G. Wells or Arnold Toynbee, but the most simplified, “purified” English—in its international-American variant. How strong is this inertia of vulgar (Latin vulgaris) English-language communication in world affairs? And in which languages will the new “tablets” of instruction for a polycentric world be written—and, more importantly, conceived? Nikita Ryabchenko, International relations and world development researcher, addresses these and other questions.
Natural languages constitute the foundation of our abstract-logical thinking, a means of describing surrounding reality, and a powerful instrument of semantic governance of international life through the creation, dissemination, and use of words that shape stereotypes of thought, communication, and activity for vast numbers of people.
Historically, the language that acquired the status of international communication was always the one through which the cultural achievements of its speakers were recorded—in science and technology, the arts, and social thought—and which held strategic significance for the progress of civilisation as a whole. At different historical periods, Latin, Arabic, French, English, and other languages assumed the role of the language of international communication.
In the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, French acquired and maintained this status—owing to the development of the natural sciences (René Descartes, Blaise Pascal), the transition to the Enlightenment (Les Lumières) and the Age of Reason (L’Âge de la raison), the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (La Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, 1789), and the drafting of the Napoleonic Civil Code (Le Code civil des Français, Code Napoléon, 1804). It was also associated with the emergence of classical diplomacy during the era of the Concert of Vienna and, later, with the appearance of the first international organisations.
The English language, which today holds a dominant position, acquired this status already in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—initially with the rise of the British colonial empire and subsequently, during the bipolar era, with the transfer of the leading role in the Western world to the United States. This occurred primarily because the technologies of the most advanced tech paradigms were developed and described precisely in English.
The Russian language, in turn, achieved its widest global dissemination during the Soviet period, especially after 1945, following the end of the Second World War, for several reasons. First, the USSR became the ideological and political core of the global socialist system, offering a worldwide developmental alternative. Second, the Soviet state ensured the transition of many peoples of Eurasia to the industrial phase of development—with administration, education, and culture organised on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. Third, the foreign policy of the Soviet Union was oriented towards the industrial and scientific-technological development of friendly states across different parts of the world.
More than thirty years after the dissolution of the USSR, contemporary Russia—although it is becoming a catalyst of new global transformations in the twenty-first century—has not yet proposed its own global alternative, at least one comparable to the Soviet project. Meanwhile, the role of the centre of global industrial and scientific-technological development is shifting to China. At the same time, following the collapse of the Soviet Union many peoples of Eurasia have once more reverted to nationalism and dependence on foreign powers.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
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