In global politics and international relations, polarity is defined as the distribution of power among states, according to eminent international scholar Kenneth Waltz. It is, therefore, said in the rise and fall of great powers, the structure and polarity of global politics has remained in flux. Historians argued that the world before World War 1 and World 2 was constituted of multipolarity, the confluence of great powers during which Great Britain emerged as a hegemon.
However, the balance of power greatly shifted towards the US and USSR following the end of World War 2, setting the stage for the Cold War. Again, during the Cold War, the system was bipolar where majorities had to align themselves with either the USA or USSR for the protection of their core national interests. Interestingly, nuclear deterrence was the primary reason for thwarting the Cold War into a hot war, although major conflicts and wars broke out in the Third World, famously in the Korean peninsula (1950-53) and Vietnam (1955-1975).
Minister offers condolences to family of kite string victimMoving forward, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) contributed to the vanquishing of the USSR, marking the end of the Cold War. The USA emerged as the sole superpower and embarked on the agenda of a liberal world, marked by the spread of democracy and the growth of free markets and globalization. Consequently, many liberals argued the age of unipolarity under American leadership was a peaceful era in human history.
However, the flip side of the story is that America used her unbridled military and economic might to destroy countries like Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003) and was involved elsewhere in the Middle East, allegedly in the........