Uneven Polycentrism and the Global Crisis

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in August 1991, the international constellation of major and regional powers, plus antistate organizations, has not so gradually shifted away from an essentially bicentric US-Soviet system and toward a new polycentrism that is characterized by the rise of differing (and shifting) centers of decision making with highly uneven degrees of power and influence.¹ Due to the fact that there are now multiple major and regional actors as compared to the Cold War and that actions of rival states and antistate actors are often unexpected, the possibility of war appears greater today than during the bicentric Cold War.