ABSTRACT
Academic specialists of international affairs have long debated how global power structures shape peace and stability. A leader among them, American political scientist Kenneth Waltz, believed that a world with only two superpowers is more stable that a world with many. Hence, the Cold War was more orderly than, say 19th century Europe, when several great powers vied for influence and unleashed many destructive wars. A multipolar world, he argued, is messy, alliances are hard to predict and difficult to maintain. It is difficult to know who is doing what to whom.
