1. The fall of the Berlin wall and the unification of the bifurcated Germany set in motion a series of stunning developments in Europe. Mobs in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and other countries in Eastern Europe rose against socialist dictatorships and the regimes fell like a pack of cards in quick succession, as the then Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership was uninterested to militarily intervene.
2. Soon the fever for freedom shook the master of the socialist camp itself.The Soviet Union broke up into Russian Federation and 14 other Republics in 1991.All these new states abandoned socialism and embraced Western ideology of democracy and free market economy. It was regarded as a grand victory for the United States.
3. While the Warsaw Treaty Organization was disbanded,NATO continues and is engaged in military activities in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan,something not originally planned.
4. With victory in the Cold War the United States became an object of both admiration and fear. The US became the single remaining superpower with the fall of socialism and break up of the Soviet Union.
5. To illustrate the domination of the United States, it may suffice to cite just one area, arms exports. Although the arms exports markedly shrank by nearly half after the Cold War, the US share has remained dominant, approximately two-thirds of the total value of arms exports.
6. To many observers,the dominance of one single country-unipolarity-aptly describes the world order since the time the Cold War ended fifteen years ago.
7. The United States has no challenger in claiming the top slot.The erstwhile enemy, the Soviet Union, is now an ally, a partner of the United States in matters of arms control,international security,settlement of regional conflicts,trade and investment.
8. Despite occasional tensions,Europe is nowhere near challenging United States power.China has achieved impressive economic progress after abandoning the socialist model long before the end of the Cold War,but has limitations in matching the United States power.
9. The Non-aligned Movement has become less relevant. Many socialist-oriented countries among the non-aligned too embraced free market ideology. Economies were liberalised to attract foreign/Western investment.
10. The role of the International Monetary Fund has become a key instrument of the United States in supervising the adjustment process of these economies to market forces.
11. The new power realities are aptly brought to bear in the functioning of the United Nations-a body designed to work for democratic and just world order. The United Nations began playing "activist" role in restoring peace and security.
12. The important security-related organ, the Security Council earlier known for disagreements between the two superpowers, is transformed into an active agent of the US while other permanent members either collaborated or looked the other way. Transparency and democratic functioning of the UN suffered.
13. The role of the United Nations during the first Gulf War to vacate the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s stands out as the best example of the new trend. Nearly a decade later, an impatient US invaded Iraq in 2003 unilaterally without caring for the United Nations.
14. The functioning of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General too suffered due to the domineering attitude of the United States.
