ABSTRACT

The development and application of systemic theories in International Relations can only be understood within the historically unprecedented context of the post1945 world. The bipolar global opposition between two major non-European superpowers (the US and the USSR) fostered theoretical innovation towards more global thinking. The decline following the war forced the old continent to reconsider the previous European system of alliances and balance of power and the related theories. Systems theory was an important tool in this evolution. American intellectual elites turned to systems theory to conceptualize the new role of the US as a global hegemonic superpower and the confrontational unification of the planet around the bipolar principle. Thus, this innovative approach was primarily developed in American universities during the 1950s-1980s, both in conjunction with traditional realism and exceeding it.