Welcome to the multipolar world

THAT the United States plans to make its biggest military expansion in Europe since the end of the Cold War, including its first permanent presence in Poland - as Sweden and Finland prepare to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - is a clear indication that the post-Cold War era shaped by American global preeminence is over.

But contrary to the notion advanced by neoconservative and liberal internationalist strategists, the series of measures against Russia adopted by the US and its allies in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine would not restore the post-Cold War Unipolar Moment during which Washington was in a position to impose its will on the international system, whether it came to dominating the balance of power across the Atlantic or the Pacific or in the Greater Middle East.

Contrary to earlier Western assumptions, the process of globalisation didn’t result in the political and economic liberalisation of China, Russia, and other leading members of the international system -- the so-called "Rest" (of the world).