This is the third time in the last decade that the journal has addressed a discussion on Central Asian issues*. Abstracts for this forum were prepared by V. I. Maksimenko (IB RAS) at the request of the editorial board.

This time, as in the previous ones, the main task of the panelists was not to track the course and mutual influences of current foreign policy events. (The submission of forum materials coincided with the crisis around Iraq and the beginning of the military action of the anti-Iraqi coalition.) The purpose of such discussions, as it may be useful to remind our readers, is something else. In the course of comparing and colliding the opinions of scientists, the objective mechanism of the emergence of a particular regional situation, as well as the current and possible trends in its development. In order to provide the "think tanks" of the country's political and business circles involved in the formation of its foreign policy line with conclusions and generalizations of a conceptual and analytical nature, thereby contributing to the development of a constantly updated set of options-forecasts of the development of the situation in a particular region of the world and around it, so necessary when formulating a foreign policy strategy (strategies) of Russia.

We also hoped that during the discussion, in addition to pragmatic solutions to political problems, some theoretical and methodological issues will also be clarified, in particular, the long-discussed question of the possibilities and limits of applicability of the geopolitical approach to the analysis of interstate (international) relations in our time, during the intensification of globalization processes in the world.

Arapov D. Yu. (MSU), Belokrenitsky V. L. (Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Bogaturov A. D. (Scientific and Educational Forum on International Relations), Voskresensky A. D. (MGIMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation), Kosolapov N. A. (IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Luzyanin S. G. (MGIMO), P. Polyakov (MSU), S. V. Solodovnik (MGIMO), V. I. Yurtaev (Institute of Economic Strategies).

* For the two previous discussions, see Forum: The New Geopolitical Situation in Central Asia and its Implications for Russia / / Orient (Oriens). 1993. N 6; Forum: Tsentralnaya Aziya v evraziyskoy perspektivy [Forum: Central Asia in the Eurasian Perspective]. They are joined thematically by a number of publications in the journal, in particular:: Belokrenitsky V. Ya. Problemy i perspektivy formirovaniya tsentralnoaziatskogo makroregiona [Problems and prospects of forming the Central Asian macro-region] // Ibid., 1993. N 4; same name. East through the prism of world demographic forecasts (on the issue of geodemography and geopolitics of the next century // 1999. N 5; Maksimenko V. I. Rossiya i Aziya, ili Anti-Brzezinski (ocherk geopolitiki 2000 goda) [Russia and Asia, or Anti - Brzezinski (Essay on Geopolitics in 2000)] / / Ibid., 2000. N 1-2; N 4-5; Zotov O. V. "Evraziyskie Balkany" v geopolitike Kitay: znachenie dlya Rossii // Ibid., 2001. N 4; same name. The "Secret" history of Xinjiang: a Russian perspective / / Ibid., 2003, No. 1.

Permanent link to this publication: