BIPOLARITY was the state of the world from 1945 to 1991 there were two large blocs of power during the Cold War. (1). The free world led by the United States, Western Europe and their allies. (2). The communist world, led by the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and their allies. The so-called “Third World” or the emerging nations of the Global South were thought to be excluded from bipolarity or were aligned with either “West” or “East.”
UNIPOLARITY was the system that emerged at the end of the Cold War in 1991. The United States was the unchallenged hyperpower and was enjoying a unipolar moment at the “End of History” when Liberal democracy emerged as triumphant. There would be no more wars among the great powers. The role of the United States was “to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival … to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”[20 It took a series of wars led by the US and NATO and millions of dead until Western neoliberal globalism committed suicide by overextending itself. The United States’ had its brief “unipolar moment” as Charles Krauthammer stated in 1990. Since that time, the world has been shifting away from modern nation-states toward a multipolar order of civilization states.
MULTIPOLARITY was the state of the world in all of history until the 17th century. There were no “countries” as we think of them today. The political order of civilizations was organized into tribal peoples, kingdoms, and empires. The cultural order was aligned along the boundaries of civilizations. The boundaries of these great civilizations seldom touched. For most of history, one civilization did not even know others existed (e.g., Europeans, Chinese, Aztecs). When civilizations clashed, it was usually with great violence (Rome/Carthage, Greece/Persia, Spain/Inca). After the 14th century, which began after the Age of Exploration, the nations of Europe struggled against each other to dominate the sea trade and thus control the reserve currency and the seat of the European empire. Regardless of the fact that the power of Europe was unipolar, centering around one nation at a time, the entire world order remained multipolar as it was from the beginning.
Read more