Multipolar Political Environment INTRODUCTION The

The crumbling of the socalled Communist Empire in Eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 has led many political observers and analysts to proclaim that the international political environment has been transformed. These observers and analysts conclude that, as a consequence of this collapse, the international political environment has ceased to be one of a bipolar character, in which the United States and the Soviet Union were the principal players, and will soon assume a multipolar character, in which either (1) the United States and the Soviet Union will be but two of several major players (Hyland, 1990), or (2) the United States, Japan, and the reunited Germany will be the major players, with a considerably less significant role for the Soviet Union (Tarnoff, 1989).

There is little doubt that the international political order is changing, and that, in the fall of 1990, it is significantly different from what it was in the fall of 1988. It is only superficial analysis, however, that can conclude that this change was the result of the Communist collapse in Eastern Europe in 1989. The change is a part of a process which began in earlyNovember 1982, when Leonid Brezhnev died, and which continues unabated in the fall of 1990.

It is also somewhat too soon to predict with any degree of accuracy who the major players in the developing multipolar

environment will and will not be, and which, if any, of these players will be first among equals, the status tha

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