World Politics in the 21st Century: The New Cold War?
by jeffrey haynes
World politics undeniably changed over the last 30 years. Today, there are lots more ‘actors’ in world politics – both states and non-states affecting global outcomes. This leads to much greater uncertainty, as it is no longer possible to determine with any accuracy just which actors will be the important actors in any particular context. Our new book, World Politics. International Relations & Globalisation in the 21st Century, examines and explains what has happened over the last three decades: how the complexities, contestations and uncertainties of world politics has taken us to where we are today.
The reorganisation of world politics was due to two main factors: the end of the Cold War – that is, a long ‘cold’ conflict between the Soviet Union and the USA which did not develop into ‘hot’ war. The successor state to the Soviet Union is Russia. Just like during the Cold War, there is great tension between Russia and the West today too, exacerbated by the challenges of globalisation.
Globalisation has led to constant tensions between Russia and the USA which centres on these states’ different approaches to world politics. Both seek to advance their security and prosperity. Yet, the two sides do not see eye to eye either on what their priorities are or how they should go about encouraging beneficial collective objectives, such as, how to protect the planet from calamitous climate change.
Central to the conflict between Russia and the USA are differing views on what values are appropriate to make the world a place of greater cooperation and less conflict. This can be seen in the global clamour for more and improved human rights. Both ‘sides’ – that is, the USA and Russia, along with China – have different views. The USA is keen on ‘individualist’ values, such as liberal democracy and free market capitalism, while both Russia and China favour authoritarian governments and state control of the market. Differences over how world politics should be organised and run regularly surface at the United Nations, the world’s leading international organisation to improve cooperation and reduce conflict. Many experts on world politics regard the United Nations, founded in 1945, as unsuitable to deal with the problems of today. The United Nations does not have the power to compel states to act in ways conducive to global improvements and powerful states regularly ignore the United Nations when making their foreign policy decisions.
We’ve seen how things have come to a head. In 2022-23. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and Hamas’s intrusion into Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Hamas-Israel war took our attention squarely back to the responsibility of states to supervise outcomes in world politics – and showed them to be lacking in this regard. These tragic conflicts underline that one of the main outcomes of globalisation is a much greater, generalised awareness of conflagrations and disasters around the world, while engendering in many of us feelings of helplessness to do anything to remedy them. Furthermore, these global conflicts underscore the continuing legacy of Cold War-era politics and tensions and prove the difficulty in predicting global outcomes.
Book Details
World Politics: International Relations and Globalisation in the 21st Century
Jeffrey Haynes, Peter Hough , Bruce Pilbeam
May 2023
IBSN (Paperback): 9781529774580
IBSN (E-Book): 9781529613834
About the Author
