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THE NEW WORLD ORDER

Terms by George Bush Senior
Can be generally divided into three stages of transformation: * From the end of the Cold War until 9/11 * From 9/11 until the Global Financial Crisis * From the GFC to present day

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From the Cold War until 9/11 * Period from 1989 until 2011 * After a stagnant period, the 1990s turned into a decade of economic growth * Globalization saw a technological revolution * Number of states increased at the UN

1989: End of power politics * End of Bipolarity – The Cold War was marked as an era of bipolarity in which the US-inspired capitalist system ‘played off’ against the Soviet-inspired ‘state socialism’. * NATO vs WARSAW PACT; US dollar system played off by COMECON * Move towards Perestroika effectively killed off competition – leading to a reduction of ideological contestation
End of Ideology/ Victory of Capitalism? * Belief that capitalism ‘triumphed’ over socialism – greater expansion of capitalist norms. * TINA syndrome. With the exception of a few ‘rogue’ states, most have realized its best to ‘play’ the game and embraced market values. * Led to: * 1. The ‘Retreat of the State’ argument * 2. The ‘End of History thesis’
Post-Cold War Triumphantism * Led to the liberalization moves in the 1990s and the renewal of International Organizations * Increase in collective forms of Security * The growth and spread of the neoliberal form of capitalism that had emerged in the 1980s * Growth of regionalism * Transnational Class formulations led to an increase in global inequality and a division of labor
Ethnic Revivalism * End of Cold War saw split up of ideologically based regimes * With this gone, ethnic tensions started to emerge * Saw an era of ‘new’ wars where wars were fought on civil/ethnic lines as opposed to inter-state.
The Post-post Cold War * Term by Mick Cox as describing the fear after the optimism * Marked by the US-led campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq * Collective agreements came to a halt * The realization that new threats were central to the International arena
9/11
* 9-11 seen as the symbolic end to triumphantism * New dangers and a backlash brought from global society * New ‘type’ of ‘war’ * Had emerged due to literature on the ‘new wars’
Wars on ‘Terror’ * Aggressive US foreign policy in order to contain potential threats to domestic and international arena * War on non-state ‘terror’ and those that harbor terrorism * Collection of ‘rogue’ states

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Global Financial Crisis * The financial crisis ended the period of global economic growth that had started at the end of the cold war * Saw the emphasis of power re-focused away from traditional security threats to economic (in)security * Questions put into place over the nature of the international order

After the crash * The financial crisis showed the interconnected nature of the economy * Also showed the true ‘global’ significant of market collapse * The post-post war era now replaced by an ‘era of austerity’
The rise of China * China has long become an important issue in IR * A potential change of guard in leadership * The emergence of the BRICS with China at the helm relevance? * From the bipolar world to the re-emergence of a multipolar one?
Conclusion: From IR to global politics? * Since the end of the cold war there has been a move from inter-sate conflict to intra-state conflict * Greater emphasis on non-state actors * The victory and globalization of capitalism has replaced the battle of ideologies * Greater emphasis on ‘global’ and ‘regional’ issues