After World War II, two great hegemonic nations emerged: the United States and the Soviet Union. The power they had was beyond normal, in fact, the world was divided into two blocks: the communist and the capitalist. In this sense, until the end of the Soviet Union, the world order was understood in a bipolar way. Multipolar and Bipolar World
In recent decades, there has been talk of a multipolar world to describe the world order.
Characteristics of the bipolar world
When the United States and the Soviet Union led international politics, the world was clearly divided into two distinct blocs. There were two opposing ideologies, the US-led democratic system of Western countries versus the one-party communist model imposed by the Soviet Union across Eastern Europe.
From an economic point of view, the United States and its allies promoted a capitalist model based on the free market, while the Soviet bloc maintained a planned economy based on state intervention.
From a military point of view, the United States was a member of NATO and the Soviet Union was a member of the Warsaw Pact. For several decades, the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a tense Cold War and, at the same time, a rivalry for space conquest that went down in history as a space race. Multipolar and Bipolar World
In the 21st century, the balance of forces is much more complex and that is why there is talk of a multipolar world
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, it initially appeared that the world would have a single superpower, the United States. This country is undoubtedly a leader in the world order, but in recent decades it has lost a significant part of its hegemony in the international order and, for this reason, political scientists speak of a multipolar world.
To understand the new world order, one must consider that there are several nations and institutions that form power blocs. China, the European Union and the BRICS and OAS countries are some of the new actors in international politics.
In addition to these nations, institutions and blocs, we cannot forget that there are other centers of power: lobbies, multinationals, NGOs, social movements and networked communities. On the other hand, multipolarity is linked to the phenomenon of globalization. Multipolar and Bipolar World
Finally, multipolarity must be understood as a phenomenon in a constant process of transformation
In this sense, BREXIT has weakened the European Union, Islamic terrorism is a threat to the West and Russia presents itself as a new power.
Analysts and experts in Geopolitics say that in the next few years China will be the first superpower, Brazil’s economy will move from ninth to fourth place internationally and countries like Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia will be able to develop significantly.
