ABSTRACT
The past few years have seen rapid changes in the world: new countries are rising out of the ruins of the former Soviet Union; Europe is moving slowly ahead in the process of unification - the original objectives of which are by now largely unattainable; and the United States, the only remaining superpower, defines the limits of its own involvement. The old world order has made way for a unipolar world, with a few areas of instability (parts of the former Soviet Union, eastern Europe, the Persian Gulf and North Korea), and a few dictatorships - Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea attempting to rebel against the new rules of the game. At the same time, tensions have increased between the economic blocs, the United States, western Europe, and East Asia, with Japan and Germany - both of which were defeated in the Second World War - leading this economic front.
