A twenty-five year transition. The forms of power and the alleged crisis of the nation-state in the contemporary age

Abstract

Después del colapso soviético, fuimos testigos del fin de la idea de una división del mundoentre el bien y el mal, entre capitalistas y partidarios de la economía planificada, entre la derecha y la izquierda, entre procomunistas y proamericanos; y de nuevo desapareció la necesidad de tantos países emergentes de definirse como un “tercer bloque” frente al sistema bipolar. La idea económica de un primer, segundo y tercer mundo podría haberse considerado superada. El mundo se vio obligado a releerse a sí mismo y a comprender que era necesario empezar a pensar en las relaciones internacionales de una manera completamente diferente.

In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, we witnessed the end of the idea of a division of the world between good and bad, between capitalists and proponents of the planned economy, between right and left, between pro-Communists and pro-Americans; and again, disappeared the need of so many emerging countries to define themselves as a “third block” as opposed to the bipolar system. The economic idea of a first, second and third world could have been considered overcome. The world was forced to re-read itself and to understand that it was necessary to start thinking about international relations in a completely different way.