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Author : A. Frolov
Leading Research Associate, Ye.M. Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations
(IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science (Political Science)
IN 1983, VLADIMIR LUKIN brought out a book that became a
landmark not only for the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, where he worked at that time,
but for the entire Soviet scholarly community. It was per se remark-
able that the book, entitled Centers of Power: Concepts and Realities,
was published at a time when, let me remind you, the Soviet-American
confrontation and the rivalry between the two world systems reached
their peak and, let's face it, each system professed an ideology that
essentially painted a black-and-white picture of the world and claimed
to be superior to the other system. Few people could have thought in
those days that that state of affairs could come to an end any time
soon. The United States was getting ready for a grueling struggle with the Soviets. Almost nobody
in either country thought that any third party would ever come forward and throw down the
gauntlet to the world's two superpowers. Each system was getting ready for its own historic vic-
tory and saw the rest of the world as so many pieces on the chessboard.
OF COURSE, there were no particular hopes anywhere in the world that those ideas would ever
materialize. In the West, it began to be argued as far back as the late 1950s and early 1960s that
global bipolarity was being diluted because of the then rift between Moscow and Beijing and
the emergence of the Chinese factor in international relations. But, because of the archaicity of
the Chinese economy, just a handful of people believed that that trend would ever gain any
prominence.
The emergence of new centers of power is unquestionably good for Russia. It provides more
choices for Russia's political course and wider opportunities for cooperation with different coun-
tries.
This was not what happened in practice, though. Politicians took power in quite many countries
at that time who had their own principles and didn't share either American or Soviet values.
Today's international organizations fall into two functional categories. One of them are bodies
that are clearly led by one nation, for example the U.S.-led NATO and Group of Seven (G7) or
the Saudi-led Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). The other category
are multipolar organizations without any distinct leader. All of them are naturally set up to deal
with a specific set of tasks. They only exist and develop for as long as these tasks remain on
their agenda and are dissolved when the tasks have been carried out. It is debatable which cate-
gory is more effective. Having a leader has advantages to it. Smaller countries would rally around
it if it can give them economic assistance and help make them secure militarily.
Today it is not only the United States, China, and Russia that can found interregional organiza-
Centers of Power and Multipolarity: A View Through Time