ABSTRACT
Stunning changes since the end of World War II have reshaped world economies, societies, politics, religions, and cultures. Among the transformations are vast demo - graphic changes-the world population increased from 2.3 to 7 billion people who are ever more mobile, with the majority now living in cities, instead of rural areas as through most of human history. The miracle of the Internet and other technological changes have transformed communications of all kinds. Geopolitics has shifted fundamentally, as have the patterns of war that so dominated the first part of the twentieth century. A bipolar divided world of tense standoffs has made way for a complex and shifting situation of alliances and ideological colors where conflicts are nasty and often long but generally more confined and on the decline. Among the most remarkable transformations is the change from a world that was often seen as irretrievably divided into three: the wealthy capitalist world, the Communist/socialist world, and the large majority “underdeveloped” world.
