From the Editors

The International Interdisciplinary Encyclopedic Global Studies Dictionary has been prepared by a large team of authors from various countries and is published simultaneously in the Russian and English languages.

Interest in the process of globalization is growing all around world. The number of people is rapidly increasing who not only are interested in global studies professionally or conduct scholarly research in this field, but also who use these topical issues to initiate protest movements of various kinds (so called anti-globalists, alter-globalists, etc.). Global issues have also become subject matter for political and ideological discussions. They have become a part of the platforms of nearly every influential political party and of numerous national and international projects. Moreover, they are now widely covered by mass media.

Because of their universal and acute nature the issues of globalization leave almost no one indifferent. Consequently, more and more people search dictionaries and other reference works to clarify the meanings of the new terms that emerge in this area of knowledge or to find the definitions of well-known notions for which precise usage is sometimes of critical importance.

By the beginning of the 21^st century a new area of interdisciplinary knowledge has emerged: global studies. Within its framework various disciplines research globalization processes and problems engendered by them. A vast scholarly literature has already been published around the world on issues of globalization. The intense discussions that are conducted very widely are covered by academic periodicals and mass media. Still, no special dictionary has been published anywhere in the world that reflects the entire range of basic terms and notions related to global studies.

This Dictionary is a continuation of an enormous undertaking that began in 2003 with the publication of the Global Studies Encyclopedia in Russian and English versions. Already this volume is widely known. That groundbreaking encyclopedia covered basic issues related to globalization and basic problems of the modern world. For the first time, a single volume enabled the interested reader to reconstruct the panorama of ideas put forward in the field of global studies.

This new book is different from the Global Studies Encyclopedia because its purpose is more limited: to take stock, so to speak, not so much of the ideas as the terminology and notions existing in global studies at the moment.

Considering that global studies is insufficiently studied in many countries and that globalization processes are insufficiently coordinated internationally, this volume is able to contribute to enhancing creative contacts and mutual understanding among scholars and professionals working on solving similar problems in various regions of the planet and in various research fields.

Some key entries in this Dictionary are complex. They have been composed of texts provided by two ore more authors. Sometimes these scholars were from various countries and various disciplines. In some cases, while they define the same term, they interpret it differently. By representing various approaches, visions, and viewpoints, we are able to provide a stereoscopic and polyphonic vision of the most important terms.

In the Russian version, the Global Studies Dictionary contains more than 2000 entries reflecting all directions of contemporary global studies. Of many materials sent to the Editorial Board, we selected on a competitive basis the entries of 650 authors—mostly well-known Russian and foreign scholars and professionals from 58 countries of the world. In this English version we have retained the international breadth by including all contributions by non-Russians. However, because some of the Russian contributions are of local interest, we were selective and retained only the ones with broad interest. Thus, this English version still contains over 600 contributions from more than 350 authors from over 50 countries. These countries are Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chili, China, Columbia, The Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, The Netherlands, The Phillipines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, The United Kingdom, The United States and Venezuela.

Authors of the contributions in the Global Studies Dictionary primarily include scholars in social, human, natural and technological sciences and other researchers on globalization problems within ecology, economics, politics, culture, law, and the other fields of knowledge. So, beyond established scholars, we include professionals in various areas of economics and business, political and public figures, and governmental officials among our authors.

The high academic status of this volume is reflected in its Editorial Board and Editors, including, from Russia and 50 other nations, the most prominent and well known scholars and politicians, as well as leaders of many of the largest Russian and international organizations, research communities, and state bodies.

The dictionary has been prepared and published by the Center for Scientific and Applied Programs “Dialog” with the support of the Russian Philosophical Society, the Russian Ecological Academy and with participation of the international non-governmental organization “Concerned Philosophers for Peace,” the Paideia project of the Boston University (USA) and the International Public Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (the Gorbachev Foundation).

Ivan I. Mazour, Alexander N. Chumakov, William C. Gay

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