The New World Order between Unipolarism and Multipolarism

Jončić, Miloš and Jazić, Aleksandar (2014) The New World Order between Unipolarism and Multipolarism. In: The Old and the New World Order between European integration and the historical burdens : prospects and challanges for Europe of 21st century: proceedings. Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, pp. 287-301. ISBN 978-86-7067-207-9

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Abstract

At the end of the eighties, there was a collapse of bipolarity and the world entered the post-Cold War era. It was a milestone of the twentieth century. The symbolic moment of the milestone was the demolition of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The collapse of the Eastern bloc, which was a mainstay of the Warsaw Pact balance of power in the world ceased to exist, which was reflected in the possession and superiority of nuclear weapons and the Eastern and Western powers. After such a collapse of the East, especially the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the Western powers emerged from the Cold War as victors. As there were no strong opponents, the Western powers were led by the U.S that was becoming the world center of power with the advantage in terms of economic and military power, political and ideological influence. In a number of other consequences this collapse was another very important result, which is reflected in the transition from a bipolar world to unipolarism, because only America remains the superpower as there is no more Soviet Union. Only the U.S. keeps on having all attributes of a superpower (military and economic power and great political influence). This state of the world in which America has the final word is best seen in international relations. At the United Nations, the only worldwide organization that is entitled to approve the use of force based on the decisions of the Security Council, the United States plays the leading role. In terms of crises in the world the United States is the main arbiter in many of them that it often initiated itself interfering there and in order to solve them and thus establish control over these states. The primary position of America in NATO shows that the organization largely depends on it, especially in economic terms. Of course, it should be noted that the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact raised the question of justification of the existence and survival of NATO. All countries that play a significant role on the world stage have good relations with the United States or are its allies and develop partner relations with it. There are only few states that are in open conflict with the United States. The recent events of the “Arab Spring“ have certainly proved that up to date the world military and political scene is changing. After the toppling of the legitimate regime by violent means initiated by both the Western powers and multinational companies that have multiple parties interested in the states of the former “Third World“, discernible forces in different ways slowly get in the way of such arbitrariness. The leader of this new power is certainly the Russian Federation. For the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union it opposed to the arbitrariness of the West in the events in Syria. Recent developments in Ukraine and Crimea clearly show that the Russian Federation returns to the international scene as a force that can compete in all areas with the United States. In particular, it should be noted that despite the existence of the armed forces of both states and private multinationals special civil protection forces are created to provide assistance to the civilian population in emergency situations as those caused by armed conflicts and by natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes).

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