Polarity in international relations

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

Greetings everyone!

I just want to know the opinion of my fellow Neowinians on this quite serious topic in politics.

If you are not familiar with the issue and/or having problems making an informed decision, here's supplemental material for you:

"Polarity in international relations is a description of the distribution of power within the international system. There are three types of systems, Unipolarity, Bipolarity, and Multipolarity. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or internationally.

Unipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which there is one state with most of the cultural, economic, and military influence. This is also called a hegemony or hyperpower.

Examples of Unipolarity:

• The Persian Empire during 600 B.C - From Central Asia to Macedonia.
  

• The Roman Empire from 31 BC to the 5th century - Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia Minor.
  

• Chinese Empires in the 1st century B.C.-3rd century A.D., 6th-8th century A.D., and 14th-18th century A.D. - Mainly China proper, at times stretching to as far as Central Asia, Mongolia, India and Southeast Asia
  

• Mongolian Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries - All across Asia and to Eastern Europe and Egypt.
  

• The Byzantine Empire, 6th century onwards until its gradual decline and replacement by the Ottoman Empire - Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor, with influence reaching to as far as Spain at times. Exists as a bipolarity with the Western Roman Empire before its fall.
  

• The Ottoman Empire, from the 15th to the 17th centuries - same as above.
  

• The British Empire from the end of Napoleonic Wars - beginning of the 20th century
  

• The United States from 1991 (fall of the Soviet Union) to present. This status, however, is contested by powers like Russia, while some speculate that China and India would soon reach superpower status and be able to contest against the United States.
  

Bipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. Often, spheres of influence would develop. For example, in the Cold War, most Western and democratic states would fall under the influence of the USA, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. After this, the two powers will normally maneuver for the support of the unclaimed areas.

Example of Bipolarity:

The United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Multipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which more than two nation-states have nearly equal amounts of military, cultural, and economic influence.

Pre-Nuclear weapons, this system is considered the least stable of all, but due to the complexity of mutually assured destruction scenarios, with nuclear weapons, however, the opposite may be true. This system tends to have many shifting alliances until one of two things happens. Either a balance of power is struck, and neither side wants to attack the other, or one side will attack the other because it either fears the potential of the new alliance, or it feels that it can defeat the other side."

Further readings:

Source: Polarity in international relations

Balance of power in international relations

Balance of threat

Please stick to the topic and let's have a civilised discussion :yes:

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I don't see the point. The world is what it is. Unless you propose an artificial redistribution of power then you must resign yourself to work with the world as it is.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

I don't see the point. The world is what it is. Unless you propose an artificial redistribution of power then you must resign yourself to work with the world as it is.

I merely asked for opinion.

The world is what it is

That's the thing, the world is constantly changing.

We lived in the unipolar world until the beginning of the 20th century - unipolarity failed many times as history shows.

Bipolarity kind of seemed to work, but failed eventually. There were a few regional conflicts (Vietnam, Afghanistan), but overall the world was stable.

Multipolar world? I guess we'll just have to wait and see; and watch the U.S. struggle for unipolarity.