Emergence of the G-2 system

Washington

THE collapse of the bipolar international system - the US versus the Soviet Union - after the end of the Cold War was followed by the so-called Unipolar Moment when the US seemed to be running the global military and economic show for a few years.

But in the aftermath of a series of US strategic setbacks in the Middle East and the meltdown of the American financial system in 2008, there has been a lot of talk about the return to the kind of multipolar international system with the US occupying one pole in the new international system side-by-side with new and old powers, including China, India, Russia, the European Union (EU), Brazil and South Africa.