A multipolar world with bipolar characteristics

A multipolar world with bipolar characteristics

The article argues that the contemporary international system is multipolar in structure but increasingly bipolar in character. While the post–Cold War unipolar moment dominated by the United States has ended, American dominance has not. The U.S. remains the world’s foremost military and economic power, but it is no longer the sole actor shaping global outcomes. China and Russia now occupy central positions in an inherently anarchic international system.

U.S. policy under President Trump reflects this transition. Washington seeks to consolidate primacy in its immediate neighbourhood—Latin America and the Caribbean—while recalibrating its role in Europe and preparing for long-term competition with China. China, the principal systemic challenger, is converting economic growth into military power and pursuing regional hegemony in East and Southeast Asia. Russia, though economically weaker, compensates through nuclear capability, energy resources, geography, and willingness to use force, as seen in Ukraine, to reassert its sphere of influence.