ABSTRACT
In a bipolar world there was competition between the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Western alliances, most notably the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were formed by the West, while the USSR, dominated by the Russian Federation, united its Soviet republics (e.g. the Baltics states) and satellite states (e.g. the Visegrád group) under the Warsaw Pact. The dissolution of the Soviet Union meant that the alliance under the Warsaw Pact dissolved and Western organizations, particularly the European Union (EU) and NATO, expanded. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we entered a unipolar world with the US as the most powerful country and the only superpower. Recently we have entered a multipolar world where Russia with its vast natural resources has to some extent recovered and remains a military power with nuclear capabilities. It strongly opposes further EU and especially NATO expansion. The People’s Republic of China has grown and has the potential to become a much larger economy than the US if it can achieve the gross domestic product per capita level of Asian countries, such as the Republic of Korea, Singapore or indeed Hong Kong, which is now part of China. China’s growing economy and power is likely to result in growing military power and possible interference in other regions, including Europe. How should European small powers and small power alliances behave in this changed world?
