ABSTRACT
The contemporary situation has much in common with the period at the end of World War II. The world order is going through the greatest and most rapid change it has experienced since the late 1940s and early 1950s. One important difference is that the allies fighting Germany and Japan in World War II expected the war to end and had therefore planned a new order. Even in the absence of planning for the end of the Cold War, the domestic changes throughout the Communist world reverberated quickly in world politics. The entry of the formerly Communist countries into global political and economic institutions made clear the strong linkages that characterize world politics and economics. The world faces considerable uncertainty with respect to political and security arrangements. World leaders convened in Kyoto, Japan, in late 1997 to begin what almost certainly will be a prolonged global discussion on how to deal with the greenhouse effect.
