ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War and the reunification of the world economy fuelled debate on the future shape of world order. Many of the changes that have taken place since then appear contradictory. There has been a marked trend towards globalization and the creation of a more interconnected world economy and world society. This has often been associated with the erosion of the power of nation states to govern their economies, and the rise of new forms and agencies of global governance. At the same time there has been a substantial regionalization of economic activity and the strengthening of regionalist projects launched by core states or groups of states. The hopes that had been briefly expressed after 1991 for a new world order which would transcend the conflicts of the past were dashed after the events of 9/11 brought awareness of new perils and new insecurities, and the application by the United States and its allies of a new security doctrine and the declaration of a new kind of war, a war on terror. The financial crash in 2008 precipitated a long-drawn out recession in the advanced Western economies and raised new questions about what kind of world order was possible or desirable (Gamble, 2009).
