Research Paper on:
21st Century World Order

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
charge are righteous and effective. Others disagree. The issue of the post cold war stability really involves two questions which are what if anything is fundamentally different about the  post cold war system and what is it about these characteristics that make the system more or less stable? Such questions loom large as the world goes into  the twenty-first century disarmed, or supposedly so. Today, a significant issue are the small nations--nations that posed no threat during the cold war era--but now posses nuclear weapons or the  capability of producing them. Although that seems to be the case, Pastor (2000) does not agree as he suggests that there are seven world powers that run, and will continue  to run, the world. They are China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. His analysis is perhaps true in the economic sense as these  powers are economically stable, but is it valid in respect to political threats and threats of war? It seems that the smaller countries such as India and Pakistan and now  Iraq have weapons that they did not during cold war days and may even be inclined to use them. Yes, the second world is out of the picture as it  died when the Great Wall fell, but there is still a rising third world that eats rice and beans but also builds bombs. In fact, it is the lack of  financial gain that is indicative of danger in this brave new world that thrives on anger. It is no longer necessary to be a world power to be a threat.  These smaller nations do pose threats as weapons of mass destruction became accessible to the diminutive nations. The realist balance of power theory emphasizes continuity in the basic