MOSCOW, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Governments are in catch-up mode as the world changes more quickly and harshly than anyone imagined, according to a leading Russian political scientist.
The world was undergoing profound changes, with the role of big powers waning and regional disputes rising, while the fierce competition among countries was primarily a contest for development models and soft power, Nikolai Zlobin, a Russian scholar based in Washington D.C., told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"Our knowledge can't keep pace with the times, and our policies, including foreign policies, are chasing after the era," he said, adding that China was well placed to take advantage of the changing times.
Zlobin was a professor at the Moscow State University before joining the Center for Defense Information in 2001 as a senior fellow and director of Russian and Asian Programs. He is a leading scholar of Russia-U.S. relations, Russian, Eurasian and regional politics, history and international security.
Zlobin warned politicians against applying out-of-date methods to foreign policies regardless of the world's drastic changes, saying these measures, which were effective in the past, would not work any longer.
"We see that previous factors, including energy, technology, nuclear arsenals, and perhaps one country's overall military power, may not necessarily guarantee absolutely advantageous influence across the world now," he said.
Zlobin believed there would be persistent changes in the global political geography in the 21st century.
"The global political geography has been changing all the time, which is normal," he said. "New power centers, where neither military factors nor national ones play a key role, emerged as the process accelerated after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union."
Zlobin considered trying to grab a position in a world in transition as meaningless. "One country should strive for a leading position in the future world and eye new factors that would play a role tomorrow instead of today," he said.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush's policies "alienated the United States from the leading position, because what he sought did not exist at all and will not exist -- that's a leading position in the old era," Zlobin noted.
Big powers were losing their grip on the world, while small countries finally had chances to show themselves, he stressed.
The ability to handle regional instability had gained prominence in a world plagued by regional conflicts, he said, adding that how to deal with minor conflicts had become a great global challenge.
"This is a world without main power centers, polars or even basic trends. Such a world is in long-term competition. One needs to compete every day not to defeat others but to boost one's own appeal," he said.
Zlobin labeled the need to pursue new factors and methods as the so-called soft power phenomenon, which meant one country should seek to promote its influence through non-military means and to position itself in global policies by non-traditional ways.
He said great changes demanded all governments review their foreign policies and spend more resources establishing reputations, which he said were earned through soft power rather than military means.
In modern circumstances, one state's influence in the decades to come is determined by the influence of its socio-political model, he said.
"We are entering a model race, not an arms race. It's not about nuclear weapons, energy or resources, but a technical contest for a national model, which refers to one country's development model," the scholar said.
"China enjoys very favorable conditions," Zlobin said, proposing that China actively involve itself in globalization, and take part in international competition and the work on a new global order in face of the dramatically changing world.
China should target global competition, he said, adding that it must map out effective public relations strategies, engage in the global information competition, and introduce its music, plays, movies, artists, writers and philosophers to the world.
Spreading pleasant, funny and topical information over the world and making China an interesting and appealing country would strengthen China's soft power, Zlobin said.
