Guest Editor’s Introduction

At the turn of the 21st century, the world entered a new period of development. The customary bipolar system that prevailed after World War II had collapsed following the self-destruction of one of its poles. Russia’s refusal to follow the Western course is only the first poignant sign of confrontation between the West’s united world project and the emerging multipolar world. So at this point, the post-bipolar world can be described as interim and transitional from the global dominance of the West after the end of the Cold War to a multipolar world, which is still forming (and no one knows if it can become a reality). In a multipolar world the influence of the Western centre of power will diminish, while that of the other centres (China, India, Brazil, etc.) will grow. New centres of power will try to create zones of influence around their borders by snatching influence there from the West.