The Language of Politics in a Multipolar World

St. Petersburg University hosted the II St. Petersburg International Congress on International Studies “Global and Regional Challenges in a Changing World” on April 25–27, 2024. The Congress was “a platform for an open professional talk among academics, experts and practitioners in international relations in the context of modern challenges to international security and pivotal changes in the world political system”. The academic relevance and the practical focus were conditioned by “the obvious need to identify and summarize key theoretical and practical trends in the field of international relations, aimed at overcoming crisis phenomena in global development.” The Congress was attended by professionals in History, Philosophy, Economics, Political Geography, International Relations and Political Communication. A number of open lectures, round tables, and thematic sections were organized in the course of the event. One of the thematic sections was “The Language of Politics in a Multipolar World”. Summarizing the results of the discussion, the moderators highlighted the relevance of such approaches in modern political linguistics as political metaphor studies, the analysis of the processes and mechanisms of linguistic categorization and conceptualization of the political worldview, the study of conflict-evoking means and polycode texts in modern political discourse, the development of digital content of political media discourse. In conclusion, the moderators emphasized that language plays a key role in international politics, it serves as the primary means of communication and understanding between countries, and it has a significant impact on cultural and diplomatic relations, either promoting or hindering cooperation and conflict resolution. It was also noted that the section was held in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Hindi, i.e. the top languages in the world by total number of speakers. The moderators thought this fact to be a promising sign and a good start for a new tradition to hold this annual thematic section focusing on the language of politics and diplomacy in the course of St. Petersburg International Congress of International Relations Researchers “Global and Regional Challenges in a Changing World”.