Ukraine’s global status as an indicator of its current problems and opportunities

Abstract

It was ascertained that the global status of a country is determined by a set of its characteristics as an entity of international relations identifying the place it occupies among other countries over a certain historical period of time. The global status is defined as the relative position of countries in the system of international relations. The main factors that determine the global status of countries are economic development; achievements in science, technology and innovation; development of social spheres (health care, education, social protection); the outcome of distributing and exercising power within the state (domestic policy) as well as between states (foreign policy); the effectiveness of institutions; and governance efficiency in the field of environmental management. It is proved that the global status of countries depends primarily on how effectively each of its spheres functions in terms of the interests of society’s development. At the same time, it depends on the synergistic effect — the coordinated action of all components of the socio-natural system (aggregate endogenous factor) and the degree of the country inclusion in the system of modern international relations, which is largely due to globalisation (exogenous factor). It is stated that the country’s acquisition of a different global status compared to the previous one reflects the status dynamics. That means a change in the roles played by countries in the system of international relations, i.e. the process of transforming their behavior on the world stage. These starting points of the study of the place and role of individual countries in the modern globalized world became the basis for the analysis of Ukraine’s position (by areas of activity and in general). The global status of Ukraine is defined and interpreted through correlation with the criteria derived from the theory of world-system analysis. Based on these methodological principles, modern problems have been identified and the possibility of further development of Ukraine has been assessed.