CONTRADICTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION: OBSTACLES OR DRIVING FORCES? <...> Svetlana Ter-Minasova Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies Moscow State University 31, Bldg. 1, Lomonosov Str., 119192, Russia, Moscow Contradictions are supposed to be the basis of human development process. <...> The paper deals with the contradictions and paradoxes in a most important sphere of human activity: international communication. <...> Different kinds of contradictions are to be discussed: general ones shared internationally, i.e. concerning every nation, language and culture as well as those which are specific to present-day Russia. <...> Nowadays, we all happen to be fortunate witnesses — and users! — of unimaginably great inventions in the sphere of communication which have given birth to the era of globalization in the history of mankind. <...> The eternal dream of mankind to live in peace and friendship with all the nations on the planet — sorry, in the Global Village! — is about to come true. <...> Philosophers have been trying to convince us that the progress of mankind is a dialectical process based on the unity and conflict of contradictions. <...> These contradictions can be presented in two large categories or classes: 1) general ones, concerning the whole mankind, 2) special ones concerning some limited groups of people, for example, those who are united professionally. <...> In this paper I am going to mention the contradictions of the first — general — category and to dwell upon the second — our professional ones. <...> Our planet has shrunk to the size of “a global village”, we can live in peace, doing everything together. <...> On the way to this global happy life a “small obstacle” has turned up — a human factor. <...> The happy global life in the global village is impossible without a global language which, undoubtedly, implies English. <...> Instead of being overjoyed by the opportunities of international communication presented by new technology and a happy global life as its consequence most nations have a great reluctance to the idea of replacing their national languages with English. <...> Thus, the most formidable obstacles on the way to intercultural communication and a happy life in “the global village” are national: languages and cultures. 2. <...> Contradictions between the Internet and the development of international communication. <...> In other words, the individual person is the object of mass media <...>