unit 1

1. moral decline

---

2. the changing nature of human relationships

---

3. morality and politics

---

4. marketization of society

---

5. the influence of politics on the moral state of society

---

6. decline of violence

---

7. violence on TV and in the press

---

8. meritocracy

---

9. life becomes shopping

---

10. age of selfishness

---

11. market society

---

12. social mobility

---

13. ethics in politics

---

14. family values in modern society

---

15. surveillance capitalism

---

16. tech and society

---

17. slavery

---

18. inequality

---

19. income gap

---

20. market triumphalism

---

21. human contact is now a luxury good

---

unit 2

22. eradication of poverty

---

23. algorithmic bias

---

24. outsourcing human responsibilities to machines

---

25. sexism in the workplace

---

26. generational stereotypes

---

27. ageism

---

28. xenophobia

---

29. racial bigotry

---

30. genocide

---

31. elitism in education

---

32. ableism in Russia

---

33. social exclusion

---

34. ethnic diversity vs hate crime

---

35. glass ceiling

---

36. ageism as an endemic problem in modern society

---

37. ableism in education/employment

---

38. what it takes to overcome prejudice

---

39. affirmative action

---

40. ageism vs efficiency

---

41. discrimination vs survival of a people

---

42. elitism

---

43. ethnic diversity

---

44. political correctness

---

45. multiculturalism

---

unit 3

46. what it means to be religious

---

47. interfaith dialogue

---

48. freedom of conscience

---

49. religion and international conflict

---

50. religion at school

---

51. religion in the modern world

---

52. renaissance of religion

---

53. resurgence of religious intolerance

---

54. science and religion

---

55. social role of religion

---

56. state and religion

---

57. atheism

---

58. the Golden Rule

---

unit 4

1. Globalization and inequality

---

2. Globalization: advantages vs disadvantages

---

3. Mega-diplomacy: a viable concept?

---

4. We are all public diplomats

---

5. Track-one and track-two diplomacy

---

6. Globalization and world politics

---

7. Have modern technologies changed diplomacy?

---

8. Globalization is on its deathbed?

---

9. Globalization and State

---

10. Globalization vs Isolationism

---

11. NGOs in international relations

---

12. International cooperation today (actors, dimensions, tools)

---

13. The Future of Public Diplomacy

---

14. A Blueprint for Russian Public Diplomacy

---

15. E-Diplomacy Today and in the Future: Myth or Reality?

---

16. Technologies that Shape the Conduct of Diplomacy

---

17. Why Diplomacy Should Not Change.

---

18. Is There a Future for Virtual Diplomacy?

unit 4

1. Globalization and inequality

---

2. Globalization: advantages vs disadvantages

---

3. Mega-diplomacy: a viable concept?

---

4. We are all public diplomats

---

5. Track-one and track-two diplomacy

---

6. Globalization and world politics

---

7. Have modern technologies changed diplomacy?

---

8. Globalization is on its deathbed?

---

9. Globalization and State

---

10. Globalization vs Isolationism

---

11. NGOs in international relations

---

12. International cooperation today (actors, dimensions, tools)

---

13. The Future of Public Diplomacy

---

14. A Blueprint for Russian Public Diplomacy

---

15. E-Diplomacy Today and in the Future: Myth or Reality?

---

16. Technologies that Shape the Conduct of Diplomacy

---

17. Why Diplomacy Should Not Change.

---

18. Is There a Future for Virtual Diplomacy?

---

unit 5

1. The UN has come to the end of its usefulness

---

2. Is the primacy of one country over others a necessary prerequisite for a stable world?

---

3. What can disrupt the world order?
4. The greatest impediment to a harmonious world order

---

5. Is the existing international system more or less susceptible to the unilateral pressure of individual countries than in the past?

---

6. What can be done to increase the Member States’ commitment to the UN as a guarantor of collective security?

---

7. What changes in international relations were ushered in by the end of the Cold War?

---

8. Is the US likely to reduce its commitment to European security in the near future?

---

9. Power, in other words, is not a natural monopoly; the struggle for mastery is both perennial and universal.

---

10. History hates a hyperpower. Sooner or later, challengers will emerge, and back we must go to a multipolar, multipower world.

---

11. Anyone who dislikes U.S. hegemony should bear in mind that, rather than a multipolar world of competing great powers, a world with no hegemon at all may be the real alternative to U.S. primacy. Apolarity could turn out to mean an anarchic new Dark Age.

---

12. Each of the potential hegemons of the twenty-first century seems to contain within it the seeds of decline; and Islam remains a diffuse force in world politics, lacking the resources of a superpower.

---

13. Could an apolar world today produce an era reminiscent of the age of Alfred? It could, though with some important and troubling differences.

14. The defining characteristic of our age is not a shift of power upward, to supranational institutions, but downward…. [I]t is the nonstate actors who truly wield global power.

---

15. The prospect of an apolar world should frighten us today a great deal more than it frightened the heirs of Charlemagne.

---

16. If the United States retreats from global hegemony its critics at home and abroad must not pretend that they are ushering in a new era of multipolar harmony or even a return to the good old balance of power.

---

17. The alternative to unipolarity would not be multipolarity at all. It would be apolarity — a global vacuum of power.

---

18. Global governance

---

19. The global financial regime

---

20. The global human rights regime

---

21. The global nuclear regime

---

•  a claim of value  —  express opinion

e.g. institution of monarchy is an outdated relic incompatible with the 21st century democracy.

• a claim of solution (policy) —  express opinion

e.g. For BRICS to become a true global player, it needs a coherent policy on a number of issues.

• a claim of fact — a ‘for-and-against’ 

e.g. Developing tourist destinations in remote areas of Russia has significant benefits along with formidable challenges.

• a claim of comparison OR contrast

e.g. Overpopulaion and underpopulation have different causes and pose different challenges to national development.

• a claim of cause and effect

e.g. Financial and political instability exacerbates brain drain.