Cast your vote for the *NEW WORLD ORDER*

[Bob McDob]

What will the current state of affairs be as we move into the glorious 21st century? Will the United States succeed in uniting the fractured, squabbling states of the Third World into a hegemon of world power? Will the EU, that idealistic pacifist government without a nation, draw the forces of China to its side as it confronts the Russo-American Alliance? Does India have the infrastructure to become a world player in the world market? Are Canada and Australia relevant? Or will the United Nations finally achieve its goal of a planet without war . . . through the use of GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR?!?!?

Let the discussion begin!

[Bob McDob]

Crap, the third option was supposed to be "Multipolar" .

[Vympel]

Fixed. Multipolar.

[Bob McDob]

Mucho gracias

[Alyrium Denryle]

I think the EU along with Canada and Australia, will grow to oppose the US both economically, and militarily, and the world will become Bipolar(in more ways than one) again.

[Knife]

I voted multi polar, yet it will, IMO, be a rollar coaster ride of unipolar then bipolor when some one arrises to challenge the top dog. Alliences will be made and the chance of a multipolar world gets better. Then one day everything colapses and you're back to unipolar again.

[Bob McDob]

Incidently, I voted multipolar - the EU is currently far too weak militarily to pose a viable threat to the US or Russia at the moment, and the major powers in general seem to have far too many diverging interests to form any sort of alliance - yet enough compulsion to work together in the form of terrorism. My concern is that if the war on terrorism is ever 'won', so to speak, it could plunge the world into a situation much like the one that preceeded the Great War, with superpowers presiding over numerous minor states. And since every great power is nuclear we're screwed if that happens. Osama bin Laden might have been a blessing in disguise, as sick as that sounds.

One wild card is Brazil, which despite its leftist tendancies seems to be developing at a pretty good rate and stands a good chance of joining the ranks of the superpowers sometime in the next century. How would a South American superpower tip the balance here?

[Axis Kast]

Multipolarity, certainly.

Within the next fifty years, China and the EU will be much more effective at challenging American financial dominance.

With or without a military, the EU has already begun to formulate its own coherent foreign policy. Look for financial feuds in the near future.

[Enforcer Talen]

if things continue as 20th century, multipolar. I predict end of world not much later.

if humanity recognizes we're all the same species, really, unipolar.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I remember in Robocop: The Series that America was at war with Brazil. They were going strong in the 1990's, and if their economy hadn't crapped out, we'd be doing more business with them than India right about now.

A "super-brazil" would definitely claim South America as its "Sphere of influence", and could likely help bring stability to the region.

[EmperorMing]

I say Bipolar; like several people I know...

[Col. Crackpot]

hopefully bi-polar. The US does it's best work when we have someone strong to compete with and undermine!

[Peregrin Toker]

Incidently, I voted multipolar - the EU is currently far too weak militarily to pose a viable threat to the US or Russia at the moment, and the major powers in general seem to have far too many diverging interests to form any sort of alliance - yet enough compulsion to work together in the form of terrorism.

Russia and its allies was never that big a threat to the USA - sure, they had some scary nuclear weapons, but their navy was only roughly half the size of the American, and their economy started crumbling back in the 1950s.

BTW - I don't count on the EU becoming that big a challenger due to the fact that it's not yet sure whether those plans about a "united European army" are being realized. China, on the other hand, will probably be a peer of USA in the future.

[NapoleonGH]

China and Russia both have the chance to be dominent powers in the world. The both have growing and in the case of russia recovering economies, and at least russia has quite a few good military technologies comming out soon, mostly in the way of aircraft.

The EU i also have great hope for, recent increases in co-oporation and unity among their nations, particularly between Germany and France (which are the two most unlikely countries to co-oporate in the union id say) gives a very good potential for success, you also have the fact that several of the nations in the EU are in the process of forming a centralized military command structure, and hopefully the EU constitution will be passed in the near future and thus will strenghten it into what could hopefully by mid century be a truely federal nation-state.

Brazil and India both have potential but im not sure that they will be realized.

I actually might say that the US wont necessarily be a world power by century's end, as there are several aspect that have arrisen in the US over the past half century that could lead to collapse. These include the debt as probably the largest one (25% of the nation's income goes to paying off the intrest on the debt, which is rising by the year in this century. remember that what is considered one of the primary causes of the french revolution was the bankruptcy of the government), with the crappy secondary education system (especially about science) and the return of religious fundamentalism (for a time in the 60s and 70s it seems like it actually might leave politics, too bad that it didnt). There are other indications of potential collapse too. This is speculation and i perfectly admit that it may not happen inthe next century, and hopefully it wont because of the US's large number of nukes and the fact that i live in the states, but i guess we all must remember that a mere decade before the fall of the USSR no one in their right mind would have predicted its collapse, now with hindsight we say alot of the signs are obvious, but no one doubted that the USSR would continue and be a major player for years, and then it kinda just sputtered out. the same thing could happen to the US, no one predicts or thinks collapse is likely, then bam, it happens and people looking back say that it was obvious.

[Peregrin Toker]

China and Russia both have the chance to be dominent powers in the world.

However, Russia still needs to recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union. At least according to the data I can gather. China would probably take the lead if the USA's hegemony collapses.

But I think that the USA will stay on top unless it gets destroyed by its own annual national debt.

[Joe]

I think the EU along with Canada and Australia, will grow to oppose the US both economically, and militarily, and the world will become Bipolar(in more ways than one) again.

Canada? What are you smoking?

[Joe]

I don't think anyway will really be able to oppose us financially as long as the US economy is so effectively entangled with the rest of the world's economy, because they'll hurt themselves just as much in the process. Besides, the EU is not a command economy (and China is becoming less of one), and the government can't really control what actions investors and businesses take when dealing with the U.S.

[Admiral Johnason]

I personally see most of Western Europe backing out of teh EU and Russia joining NATO eventually.