ИСТИНА

1. The world today is a holistic and dynamically evolving system, where no country is able to stay isolated from the world community. Last decades the situation has changed dramatically in terms of increasing tensity within single countries, and between nation-states or their alliances. It seems evident that we are being gradually dragged into a new cold war. In a globally interdependent world, and in the absence of an external force able to make numerous international actors respect not only their own interests, but also the interests of the others, and the common interest, the actors who pursue their selfish goals and protect their own interests inevitably start the war of everyone against everyone. 2. This state of affairs is brightly represented by various sanctions. Last years they more and more become an instrument of pressure on some countries and organizations to make them change their policies and behaviors. Sanctions, of course, are bad. They mean cutting trade, business, financial and other ties, worsening of the economic situation, and decreasing quality of living. However, sanctions, unilateral or bilateral, are not just an inevitable consequence of unresolved tensions in international relations; they are an effective way to express one's discontent and to oppose the other side of a conflict peacefully. Thus, only direct use of force and waging a war can be alternative to sanctions in case the parts are unable or unwilling to concede. 3. Cultures are what differentiates and, in fact, divides single people and human communities. Here one can see the roots of many conflicts and confronting interests. In reality, however, we can see not only division and confrontation, but also cooperation, productive interaction between people. This takes place on the other basis – the one of civilization. Civilization can be called the other side of culture. Both reflect the condition, processes and relations in a society. But the concept of «culture» stresses the condition, while the term «civilization» puts the emphasis on relations. At the same time, culture is an internal characteristic of a society, revealing its essence; civilization is rather the form, the external frame of culture, characterizing a society from the viewpoint of its governmental forms, functional connections and relations. 4. The notion of «cultural-cum-civilizational systems» is a complex category that can help to understand the humankind as a whole and its structural elements in their unity and diversity. The more culturally and civlizationally alike different peoples are, the easier and the more actively they create atmosphere of mutual understanding and cooperation. Western model of cultural-cum-civilizational development is characterized by aspiration for mastering the forces and the resources of nature, accompanied by acceleration of scientific and technological progress and so on. As for the East (or, broader – “non-West”), it is normally associated with traditionalism and cultural continuity, with a trend not to interfere natural processes and the natural course of events. One can finally say that in the East (as well as, in many aspects, in Russia) the emphasis is on culture, while in the West – on civilization. 5. Today in the global world, Political Decisions between Rationality and Demands of Wisdom and also the dialog of cultures and civilizations are the only possible way to resolve contradictions in a constructive way and to provide balanced social development both at the national and global levels. But they have their limits defined by the following: And the higher is the level of civilizational development of the interacting parties, the more productive this dialog can be.