From the Editorial Board

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Dear readers!

The journal ‘The Age of Globalization’ whose first issue is in your hands has not by chance got its title. Every century gets its own name in the history, sometimes even more then one. Only the future will show which title will be finally assigned to the 21^st century. But we, the contemporaries of its beginning, think that these are just the process of globalization and its possible consequences that will become central for the present century.

Already for almost forty years the global problematic attracts attention of scientists and politicians, representatives of business circles and non-governmental organizations, mass media and wide public. At the same time among the wide range of periodicals in Russia there is no specialized journal yet for the already established sphere of academic research – the global studies – which on the interdisciplinary basis would raise questions and suggest solutions of urgent problems of the present day world: starting fr om ecology, resources and demography up to the legal and geopolitical aspects of international relations. The emergence of a new scientific journal should be regarded as a response to this long-standing necessity for a solid theoretic discussion and popular science treatment of the process of globalization and global problems of the modern times.

It is also worth mentioning that against the background of increasing globalization the more evident becomes the tendency to a systematic investigation of complicated and complex problems. However, we still confront the lack of those interdisciplinary grounds wh ere the scientists and thinkers of different professions and fields of know-ledge could meet, wh ere productive ideas and theories could emerge. To a certain degree this has also influenced the idea to create the new journal.

Modern world becomes closer and more complicated, the speeds are higher and along with this we see the growth of responsibility of those scientists who are qualified to comprehend the main vectors of development, to see the real (and not imaginary) dangers in time and to prompt effective and well-circumspect decisions. It is important among a great number of problems to distinguish the main and urgent ones, those problems that pose the most concern. That is why it becomes more and more evident that we need a real (not declarative) integration of efforts of researchers specializing in different fields of scientific knowledge with the ones of representatives of financial and political circles, as well as different public and religious movements. Everyone understanding the responsibility of science, power institutions and finally, of every person for the present and future of life on the Earth, comes to the conclusion that to overcome global threats such integration is the main task of our times. The actual state of affairs in the socionatural system of the planet is serious enough. All this should be discussed thoroughly, openly and in a professional manner without surrendering to the fascination of myths or imaginary fears which are already plenty in the given field. It is necessary to provide a reasoned explanation that many problems could have been solved already by present by means of the achievements of science provided the coordinated actions of international community. We hope our journal will contribute to all this.

Our consciousness does not keep pace with changes. And nowadays many people ask themselves questions: What is ‘globalization’ and how is it connected with global problems of modernity? When and why did it start? Wh ere and in what forms will it develop? Globalization – is it right or wrong? The questions of those kinds will be discussed in detail on the pages of our edition and the leading issues of its contributions will become the following:

– theory of globalization and global studies in general;

– economic, political, social, ecological, scientific-technical, cultural, religious, ethic and other aspects of globalization;

– global problems of modernity;

– analysis of modern Russian realia in the context of processes and problems of globalization;

– global studies: urgent questions of philosophy and theory of history;

– the human problem in the light of problems of globalization;

– futurological aspects of global studies, etc.

We will give space for different points of view and approaches to the comprehension of the indicated problems, encouraging the creative discussions and the mood of constructive suggestions. The social movements and international organizations, scientific forums and research projects in the relative subjects will not be left without attention.

No doubt, in the solution of the mentioned problems will be contributed by the fact that the journal is issued with the assistance of the Russian Ecological Academy (REA) and the Russian Philosophical Society (RPS). We view this as a pledge that it will become the center of attraction of creative forces, a place wh ere Russian and foreign scientists and specialists professionally working in different fields of global studies will be able to analyze the urgent problems of globalization and its consequences, suggest theoretical and practical solutions, and also to approve and discuss new ideas, to present their reviews, expert evaluations, etc.

In its activity the Editors and International Editorial Board consisting of famous scientists will rely on already available results and achievements in the sphere of global studies. In particular, it is planned to invite to contribute to the journal the members of a large international group – the authors of Encyclopedia and Encyclopedic Dictionary which gained a high appraisal and recognition in the modern world. We think all this will contribute not only to a fruitful development of a new scientific area but also to a better understanding of Russia’s opportunities and interests in the solution of global problems of modernity, to the growth of its scientific authority in the international arena.

We also hope that the new journal will become a newsmaker in modern Russian and international scientific life and will occupy a worthy place in the range of solid theoretical journals.

The present edition is a special brief English version of the Russian journal «Век глобализации». In the first and second sections there are complete articles and in the subsequent section you can find abstracts and annotations of the rest papers of the Russian-language original.

Supervising Editor L. E. Grinin

Editor-in-Chief  A. N. Chumakov