NORAVANK LECTURING GEORGI DERLUGUIAN: “WORLD- SYSTEM AFTER DECLINE OF AMERICAN HEGEMONY”

The “Noravank” Foundation has organized a lecture discussion on “World- System after decline of American Hegemony” with participation of 28 experts and students from different fields and conducted by Dr. Derluguian, Associate Professor in Department of Sociology and International Studies at the Northwestern University, USA on May 15 2008.

According to the lecturer, the fashionable discourse of globalization obscures the fact that the processes of global market integration and democratization originated from the crisis of the 1970s. This crisis has never been overcome. As a result, it did away the USSR, the national development projects of the Third World, and it also led to the global search for new, more profitable technologies and production of chiper goods. After the Soviet collaps, America stood as tall and strong as ever. But is it true for today? What, in the broad world-historical perspective, could be the significance of American gamble and defeat in Iraq, or China's relentless return to its economic centrality in the world, or Russia's resurgence and the prospect of a cartel of such developing nations as Brazil and India? Can we make any predictions or at least have any notions about where to put the main accent while analyzing global processes?

The lecture was followed by questions and discussions with the participation of students, experts and journalists.