ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, there has been much talk about a new world order, in which American ‘unipolarity’ would be superseded by more equal arrangements among the great powers. One such idea is a return to the Russia-China-US triangle. In truth, however, the time for such geopolitical schemes has long passed. The contemporary international system is too complex and interdependent to be reduced to crude strategic balancing – a reality underlined by the global financial crisis. The most likely successor to US global leadership is not a ‘multipolar world order’ dominated by the great powers, but a rough Sino-American bipolarity. This would bear little resemblance to the stark model of the Cold War era, but instead foreshadow a new, post-modern triangle. The ‘third side’ would not be Russia, but a mass of formal and informal networks involving nation-states, multilateral institutions and non-state actors.
