Resisting Defiant Autocratic Powers in the Polarized Global Society

Trends towards autocratization in domestic and international politics have been evident for decades and discussed widely in different contexts. This panel seeks to discuss the problem of autocratization from the international security perspective, highlighting the increasing impact of autocratic states on global society conceived as a complex network linking local and regional communities exhibiting diverse forms of social identity. This problem is rooted in the crisis of the post-Cold War liberal international order and the ways how it has been challenged by autocratic powers, mostly the PR China and the Russian Federation.
The panel has four main objectives:
 To reconsider and assess critically the concept of global society, tracing it back to the flagship idea of the English School and tracking its evolution in Political Science and International Relations theories;
 To discuss defiant postures exhibited by revisionist global powers, mostly China and Russia;
 To appraise possible responses to the rise of revisionist authoritarian regimes and figure out strategies of de-polarization of global society;
 To analyse ways and means of resilience building within global society facing strong polarization tendencies.
The topical issue of resistance to autocratic state actors will revolve around the following threads:
• Polarization as one of the main issues of contemporary political regimes, democracy in particular, and the source of disruptive activities of anti-systemic actors originating in radical ideologies, societal cleavages and cultural rifts, affecting global society.
• Institutionalization as a mechanism of cooperation and integration of competing conglomerates of states and non-state actors, seeking to enhance cohesion of the existing institutions (eg. NATO, G7, SCO) and broaden their reach and influence (BRICS, G20).
• Strategic communication as a tool for information management aiming to amplify influence on the global audience, exploited intensely by China and Russia seeking to capitalize on anti-Western (anti-liberal and anti-democratic) sentiments.
A crucial point to be discussed is: Where and how can a normative consensus among liberal democratic forces be established and which are the structural bases for an effective and legitimate resistance to defiant autocratic powers.