ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War has altered fundamentally the way we see the world.1
The image of bipolarity is no longer useful as a shorthand description. Power politics is now occurring in complex regional contexts that undercut the stark assumption of the international system as unmitigated anarchy. And these regional contexts are making possible a variety of processes that put into question some conventional categories of analysis. The worldwide victory of capitalism blurs stark distinctions between capitalism and socialism and democracy and authoritarianism. Instead it places national political economies in a regional context that is shaped by a variety of processes.
