Introduction

Globalization has, essentially, come to an end. In fact, we are already living in a globalized world, even though it still has different densities in different parts of the oecumene, and inequalities in the level of globalization are still clearly evident. Our planet can be compared to an enclosed glass sphere, which we have filled with our civilization, as if with a gas. We are still unable to equalize the developmental pressure throughout the sphere at the level of the most advanced societies – and perhaps this goal cannot be achieved with the current structure and organization of the international community, and given the domination of various individual and collective egoisms over global solidarity – yet the slogan ‘Yes We Can’ in the context of this task does not sound quite as alien and abstract today as it once might have done.