BRICS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL: NEW GENERATION

Fyodor Lukyanov: The Old World Order Is Over, A New One Is Yet to Take Shape

2026-02-03 15:27
As part of the BRICS International School: New Generation, Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Presidium at the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Professor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at HSE University, Editor-in-Chief at Russia in Global Affairs, and Research Director at the Valdai Discussion Club, addressed the participants. His lecture, "The Evolution of International Relations: Past, Present, and Uncertain Future," explored the profound transformation of the global system and the search for new principles of international engagement.

The expert described the current stage of international relations as a historical turning point. The post-World War II order that ensured decades of relative stability has effectively ended. A new system has yet to take shape, leaving the world in a transitional phase where old rules no longer function and new ones are not yet established.
The main element we need to understand in order to correctly assess the international situation is that there is a paradoxical combination of growing political, cultural, and social fragmentation, and a rejection of the universalist ideas from the previous period, from the period of globalisation. This leads us to expect that the world might fall apart as a single entity—that it will split into different elements, disconnected from one another. But that doesn't happen. Instead, the world's economic interconnectedness remains and is becoming even stronger than it used to be even in times of globalisation.

Fyodor Lukyanov
Chairman of the Presidium at the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Professor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at HSE University, Editor-in-Chief at Russia in Global Affairs, and Research Director at the Valdai Discussion Club
According to him, the collapse of the old model was accompanied by the illusion that institutions created in the second half of the 20th century could adapt and remain effective in the new reality. However, the changes of the late 1980s and 1990s, followed by subsequent crises, showed that the former universalist approach is fading, and all attempts to preserve global governance in its previous form only deepen existing tensions.
The expert stressed that the modern international system blends elements of both the old and new world orders. On the one hand, political, cultural, and social fragmentation is increasing—states are increasingly rejecting universal models and pursuing their own unique paths. On the other hand, economic interdependence not only persists but is intensifying, making the world simultaneously more divided and more interconnected.

Among the key catalysts of this process, Prof. Lukyanov highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic, which proved that globalisation could be halted in weeks without causing total systemic collapse, and the Ukrainian crisis, which exposed deep-seated contradictions and prompted a fundamental rethinking of international rules. These events confirmed that the old order is definitively over, while the new one will be built through flexible, regional, and ad-hoc alliances based not on ideology, but on practical interests.
The BRICS International School: New Generation is the flagship educational project of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia based at HSE University and supported by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its key goal is to facilitate the international youth track and build a community of future leaders. In 2025, the BRICS International School: New Generation runs from October 28 to November 1 in partnership with the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and MGIMO University under Priority 2030, a state programme aimed at supporting Russian universities. The programme has brought together over 100 young researchers, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and journalists from 38 nations.