Abstract
The twentieth century has been unique in modern history; for three centuries the structure of international politics remained multipolar, in the twentieth century it has changed three times. Multipolar at the outset, it became bipolar after the Second World War, unipolar with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and as the new millennium dawns it is gradually becoming multipolar once more.
I want to thank Karen Adams, Robert Rauchhaus and Mark Sheetz for their help with, and criticisms of, this chapter.
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Notes
Quoted by Ted Robert Gurr, ‘Persistence and Change in Political Systems, 1800–1971’, American Political Science Review, vol. 68 (4) (December 1974), p. 1504.
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See Barry R. Posen, ‘U.S. Security in a Nuclear-Armed World–Or: What if Iraq had had Nuclear Weapons?’ Security Studies, vol. 6(3) (Spring 1997 ), pp. 1–31.
The paragraphs immediately above are based on Waltz, ‘Thoughts about Virtual Nuclear Arsenals’, in Michael J. Mazarr (ed.), Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World ( New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997 ).
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Richard Bernstein and Ross H. Munro, The Coming Conflict with China ( New York: A. A. Knorpf, 1997 );
and also Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross, The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China’s Search for Security ( New York: W. W. Norton, 1997 ).
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Charles W. Kegley, Jr., ‘The Neoidealist Moment in International Studies? Realist Myths and the New International Realities’, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 37 (June 1993), p. 139.
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Waltz, K.N. (2000). Intimations of Multipolarity. In: Hansen, B., Heurlin, B. (eds) The New World Order. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403905277_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403905277_1
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