Islamabad:Russian philosopher, political scientist and sociologist Prof Alexander Dugin highlighted the ongoing shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world order, emphasising the rise of civilisational states and the decline of globalism and liberalism.
During a lecture on Eurasianism and Pakistan’s Strategic Location, Prof Dugin said that the contemporary global order was seeing a fissure in the unipolar order in place since the 1990s. "The rise of civilisational states, with an emphasis on civilisational identity, in different regions of the world shall lead to the break-down of unipolarity and rise of multipolarity," he said.
The online event was held by the Consortium for Asia Pacific and Eurasian Studies (CAPS PAK) in collaboration with the Tsargrad Institute Russia as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series. Moderated by CAPES Director (Eurasia Chapter) Dr. Gul-i-Ayesha Bhatti, it was attended by academics, journalists and students.
The Russian philosopher also said that the decline of globalism and liberalism coupled with an alternative rise of civilisationism and religious eschatology across the globe was paving the way for rise of a technocentric civilisational world order.
"All non-Western states and civilisations now try to find their own set of vision about the world, including society, politics, science, ethics and values," he said. Dugin, who is also the director of the Kremlin-adjacent Tsargrad Institute and founder of the International Eurasian Movement, underscored Pakistan’s strategic importance as a key actor in the Islamic world and noted its cautious approach amid evolving global alignments.
He said Pakistan was an important actor in the Islamic civilisation by virtue of its strategic location, alliances and status as a nuclear weapons state. CAPES Pakistan president Dr Khuram Iqbal said that Pakistan presented itself as a modern Islamic republic driven by foreign policy centered on the country’s national interests at a time of turbulence when each country was left to fend for itself.
He, however, said Pakistan’s efforts were resisted by two major challenges, namely threat of terrorism and opposition by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to resolve the issue, and the Hindutva-led government in India that had actively attempted to preclude Pakistan from any initiative aimed to collective regionalism in Eurasia and Asia-Pacific.
