MULTIPOLARITY AND MULTILATERALISM: COOPERATIVE OR RIVAL CORNERSTONES OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

Abstract

Today we are nowadays confronted with a strange asymmetry: While the technology driven processes of globalization are interconnecting societies and creating networks of mutual interdependence in all sectors of live, the adaption of a political order to such revolutionary changes is behind time. This discrepancy creates the present unease, conflicts and uncertainties which haunt our societies. The classical question is thrown into the open: Are the fundamental forces unleashed by the technological revolution and its impact on changes in socio-economic relations strong enough to create a balanced world order based on peaceful cooperation among the various multipolar actors? The analysis carried out in the article allows us to state that Multipolarity and Multilateralism do not need to exclude each other. In a way they can coexist. Even more: Multilateralism could create the basis of a multipolar global order which accentuates more cooperative than conflicting issues. Despite the fact that both concepts are based on different modes and follow different objectives, their interplay mirrors much more the present complex social, economic and technological reality.