The realignment of the world

Since the end of the Cold War, the international system has been fluctuating. While the bipolar system has ended, no equivalent is in place yet. In the early days of the post-Cold War era, some talked about the unipolar moment as the United States dominated the world with its unrivalled economic and military power. During the ensuing debate, predictions between Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History" and Samuel P. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations" flourished but did not really capture the full spectrum of the emerging post-Cold War order. After 25 years, the best we can say about the world system is that it is still moving toward multi-polarity but is not quite yet there.

While there are no challengers, in the full theoretical and historical sense of the concept, to U.S. superiority in the world, attempts at balancing it abound. Granted, it is difficult to compete with the U.S. militarily, especially considering its military expenditure is still the world's largest at $581 billion in 2014. But, there are other areas of power one should look at closely.

China, for example, has been closing fast on the U.S. in terms of its economy and research and development. Its recent initiatives such as creating a Maritime Silk Road and establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are bound to increase Chinese influence in the world. While the Maritime Silk Road is expected to create $2.5 trillion worth of trade in a decade, the AIIB is expected to rival its Western equivalents, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. It will have $50 billion in capital and focus on financing large-scale infrastructure projects in Asia to assist economic development. Among the 30 that applied to become founding members, there are four G7 countries...