Following World War II, a new international system arose, characterised politically by the primacy of the large, liberal, democratic countries that had emerged as victors from the war, and financially by the dollar as the reference currency. This new system developed as a result of several factors. One was the breakup of the Soviet Union as a global power, the immediate direct effect of which was to downgrade the Russian Federation to the level of “emerging power”.

In the last few decades, there have been dramatic shifts of powers in the world we live in. Those shifts fundamentally influence our lives and way of thinking by challenging the existing notions of international relations. As a result of those shifts, the international system which emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War has been greatly transformed.