The article analyzes the main prerequisites for the emergence and further development of the Сlub of Rome. The second half of the XX century is seen as a period of qualitative transformation of all aspects of social life. The emergence of the Сlub of Rome in this period is seen as a response to the ongoing transformation processes. Globalization and the scientific and technological revolution are becoming the basic prerequisites for the formation of global problems of human civilization. Global problems are being analyzed at the international community level. The first reports of the Club of Rome analyzed the global problems of our time in the context of “society — nature” with the using computer modeling methods. If the first reports were characterized only by an assessment of the current state of civilization and forecasting its further development (with an emphasis, as a rule, on pessimistic aspects), then the subsequent works of the members of the Club of Rome is characterized by an attempt to build a model out of the existing crisis and the further sustainable development of civilization. Th e second group of reports of the Сlub develops in the framework of the analysis of interaction in the system “society — individual”. This is partly due to the fact that social problems are becoming more acute, primarily the problem of confrontation between the “rich North and the poor South”. Within the framework of these works, the idea that modern global problems are not only environmental and economic problems, they are problems of political and institutional order, they are demographic, cultural, ideological, they are problems of the crisis of the basic value structures of modern civilization is gaining popularity. The authors of the reports lead us to the need to build a new ideological paradigm, which will be the basis of a new global ethics. The creation of a new ethics of international cooperation is considered as a basic and key condition for overcoming the existing crisis.