ABSTRACT
The dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the effective end of the socialist project and of the Cold War. The division of the world to which the Cold War gave rise, moreover, had been unusually stable and effective and virtually defined the second half of the twentieth century. The end of the Cold War has therefore meant the loss both of ideological certainty and of a structure for managing international conflict. The mixed legacy of socialism has left the formerly socialist societies in a very ambiguous relationship to the world economy and the global division of labor. Understanding the contours of contemporary politics requires a procedure much like the one needed to probe the nature of the world economy. The increased freedom accorded national states and peoples by the ending of the Cold War is and will continue to be counterbalanced, however, by the altered nature of the world economy.
