The circumstances of the 1991 Gulf Crisis created a reality which is in sharp contrast with many of these expectations. During the Cold War period, international order was based on the existence of the two primary superpowers. Thus, a bipolar arrangement existed with the United States and its Western allies on one side and the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc nations on the other side. The primary security concern for the West at that time was the containment of the Soviet Union. In the years following the Second World War, Soviet invasions in Eastern Europe led to a powerful build-up of military strength. The rapid spread of Soviet military influence posed a tangible threat to the democratic values that the Western alliance was seeking to preserve. Thus, the United States undertook the important goal of seeking to prevent the Soviet Union "from achieving total hegemony in Eurasia." In 1989, with the end of the Cold War and the decline of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, the strategic goal of containment began to dissolve in importance. Although the Soviet Union's military is still very large and powerful, it is unlikely at this time that the nation will make any serious effort to reassert its dominance in Eastern Europe. This is primarily because such an effort would "greatly tax the Soviet Union's resources" and thereby undermine the recent reform efforts which have taken place in the nation.
At the conclusion of the Cold War, many analysts predicted that the newly emerging international system would be multipolar in orientation. Thus, in contrast to the bipolar split found in superpower relations, the new world order was expected to be characterized by the existence of diverse power centers around the world. However, not all of these powers would be military-based like the United States or the Soviet Union. For example, it was expected that Japan and the reunified Germany would develop power based on economic st...