Creation of the international order for 21st century as return to early modern Westphalian balance of power

Cvetićanin, Neven (2017) Creation of the international order for 21st century as return to early modern Westphalian balance of power. In: Initiatives of the "New silk road" : achievements and challenges. Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, pp. 209-225. ISBN 978-86-7067-246-8

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Abstract

The paper discusses the future of international relations in the 21st century. A possible pattern of these relations is found in the early modern European (Westphalian) diplomatic system of sovereign states, with the balance of power between the great powers as the basic principle. In order to support this thesis, the paper examines, in the basic outlines, the history of international relations from the Westphalian system to the present day and defines the different phases of these relations in a new and innovative way. In this sense, the paper offers a new periodization of the various systems of international relations of the modern epoch, with a special emphasis on the three phases of international relations from the end of the Second World War to the present day. The paper concludes that after a cold‐war equilibrium between two superpowers (the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.) and the short‐term domination of the U.S.A. as the only super power after the end of the Cold War, we currently have the appearance of a new multipolar world with several dominant global powers (primarily the U.S.A., China, Russia, and the U.K) that are currently seeking a new balance of power between themselves. Therefore, the basic thesis of this paper is that these great powers will sooner or later have to organize a “new Yalta” (or a series of international conferences such as those in Yalta) for a “new deal” on the configuration of the international order in the 21st century. The thesis of our work is that the ideal model for this configuration can be found in the early modern European Westphalian system of sovereign states. Our thesis is similar to the thesis of recent research by Henry A. Kissinger, whose works we used mainly in our research on this topic.

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