12.12.2012
"21st CENTURY", N 2, 2012
The second issue of “21st CENTURY” for 2012 was published. It featured articles covering issues of consumerism (Erik Assadourian), general trends of mass media in newly formed Eastern European countries (Nvard Melkonyan, Tatiana Prots, Olena Mramornova), humanitarian emergency (Hovhannes Nikoghosyan), ideology of pan-Turkism in the relation to the Artsakh problem (David Babayan) and prospects of special partnership between Armenia and China (Simon Saradzhyan).
Below you can find the annotations of the articles in English.
Erik Assadourian
THE RISE AND FALL OF CONSUMER CULTURES
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Annotation
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| In the 2009 documentary The Age of Stupid, a fictional historian who is possibly the last man on Earth looks at archival film footage from 2008 and contemplates the last years in which humanity could have saved itself from global ecological collapse. As he reflects on the lives of several individuals – an Indian businessman building a new low-cost airline, a British community group concerned about climate change but fighting a new wind turbine development in the area, a Nigerian student striving to live the American dream, and an American oilman who sees no contradiction between his work and his love of the out-doors – the historian wonders, “Why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance?” Were we just being stupid? Or was it that “on some level we weren’t sure that we were worth saving?” The answer has little to do with humans being stupid or self-destructive but everything to do with culture. |
Nvard Melkonyan, Tatiana Prots, Olena Mramornova
THE COMPARISON OF GENERAL TRENDS OF MASS MEDIA IN NEW EASTERN EUROPE COUNTRIES
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Annotation
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| The article aims at exposing the features of the media institution, particularly, its operation under conditions of transformation and presents a review of the basic functions performed by this institution in post-Soviet countries. In transitional societies the role and status of mass media differs from those in the countries with developed democracy. The freedom of speech and thought, political and ideological pluralism, the right to receive and spread information, etc. have become a reality. Media not only react to political events, but also affect them. It is part of the politics: the media create the agenda, become a mediator and instrument in shaping domestic and foreign policy, adjusting and changing the public opinion. |
Hovhannes Nikoghosyan
CROSSING THE RUBICON։ THE ENVIRONMENT OF HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY
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Annotation
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| The World War I ended up with massive losses to all sides, total death toll of 40 million people and huge devastations to the world economy. The first ever universal inter-governmental body – the League of Nations – was established in 1920 by the decisions of Paris Peace Conference, as member-states accepted their “obligations not to resort to war” and maintain justice among “organized peoples”, with due respect to “international obligations” (Art. 13) and under the threat of universal sanctions (Art. 16). In a pursuit to do the homework, the US Secretary of State Frank Kellogg together with his French colleague, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand worked out what would later be remembered as the Briand-Kellogg Pact, meant to stop massive wars in the future, and in fact – outlaw wars of aggression. The contemporary world was so shocked by the atrocities and devastations of WWI, that Briand and Kellogg were awarded Nobel Peace Prizes (in 1926 and 1929 - respectively). However, two years after that an original signatory power – Japan – invaded in China/Manchuria (1931), and 10 years after that, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, triggering another World War. |
David Babayan
THE ARTSAKH PROBLEM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF PAN-TURKISM
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Annotation
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| The Artsakh problem is a crucial issue not only for the Armenian people and Armenian statehood, but it also has been on agenda of global geopolitics since long ago, especially in the context of the strategically important location of Transcaucasia where the interests of global and regional actors intertwine and clash. |
Simon Saradzhyan
ARMENIA AND CHINA − CASE FOR A SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP
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Annotation
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| There is hardly an international affairs expert left who has not lamented the unpredictability of the post-Cold War world (even if Francis Fukuyama might still be claiming that history has ended). But there is one trend in the international affairs that most of these experts predict will probably continue for years to come: the rise of China. For many of them, the question is no longer whether China will become the world’s dominant economic power, but rather when this will occur. The International Monetary Fund and Goldman Sachs are betting on, 2016 and 2030 respectively. The Middle Kingdom already leads the world in such spheres as exports, manufacturing, and foreign exchange reserves. As for those who may have doubts about how far the Chinese economy has progressed technologically since Mao Zedong urged Chinese peasants to make iron in backyard furnaces, they should consider the following fact: the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2010 was China’s Tianhe-1A. |
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