№ 2 - 2003
Discussion.
Rethinking Modernity

The idea to “rethink” Modernity, or, rather, the prevalent ideas of it, came from the members of the Polis’ International Consultative Committee and of its Editorial Board — B.Wittrock, A.Yu.Melvil, H.Alker, A.S.Kuzmin and V.M.Sergeyev. Guided by the consideration that the very nature of Modernity as “unfinished project” presupposes definition of the Modern as definition being continually completed, and its qualitative characterization as one being made ever more precise, they proposed a discussion to be held that could concentrate on issues requiring new, non-standard answers. This proposal met with the support of a number of the country’s well-known scholar institutions, such as the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (U), the Moscow State University, the Russian International Studies Association and the Institute of Humane and Political Studies. As a result, an international “Rethinking Modernity” scientific conference was held in Moscow in late October 2002, in which notable Russian and foreign specialists in the issues of the Modern took part. The conference was designed and put through as an organic succession of four round tables: “Turning Points of History and the World Order”; “Prospects of Evolution of the State in the Modern World”; “New Threats to the International Security”; “New Economic Structures and the World Politics”. In the present issue we acquaint the reader with an abridged version of the proceedings of the former two.