ABSTRACT
The world in the 1970s is said to be a multipolar world. More accurately, it should probably be called a world of political and economic multipolarity with military bipolarity. A simplified characterization of the world in the 1970s as a US–Soviet–Chinese tripolar structure or a pentagonal structure with the addition of Japan and Western Europe could very well lead to dangerous misunderstandings of reality. In Japan, the term ‘Nixon shock’ refers to the announcement in July 1971 of President Nixon’s plans to visit China; the announcement in August of a series of new economic policies including the imposition of a surcharge on American imports and the suspension of dollar convertibility to gold; and the subsequent textile negotiations ultimatum that went so far as to threaten Japan with the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act.
