Sovereignty and Universality in a World Undergoing Global Transformation

For the last 400 years, the world has lived in an era of increasing globalization that was based on the universalist project proposed by Western civilization. This path resulted in the creation of a system of institutions and guidelines, which for a long time set the general development trajectory and forms of constructive interaction between its participants. The system of international law is one of civilization’s most important achievements, and the profound crisis that it is currently undergoing is one of the key symptoms of the degradation of the Western universalist project. Such globally recognized institutions as human rights and freedoms have ceased to fulfil their unifying function of having a truly universal orientation and are being transformed by Western civilization, as it loses its hegemony, into a segregating and divisive instrument used to ensure the superiority of the particular over the universal. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Western universalist project has exhausted its potential, and new civilizational resources are needed for the further development of the planet. To find them, the world must get back to diversity and recognize the limitations of what has been achieved and develop civilizational diversity. We need to move away from the struggle ‘against’ towards the struggle ‘for’ – for new opportunities to coexist in an inextricably common universe. As Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in his speech at the Valdai Forum, Russia’s role in the modern world is not limited to “just protecting and preserving itself. This may sound a bit pompous, but the very existence of Russia is a guarantee that the world will retain its multicolored nature, diversity, and complexity, and this is the key to successful development”. What should be the principles of the new universalist project? How will we find common ground and how can we combine productive civilizational diversity with the objective unity of the world in which we are destined to live?