The Global Control System and the International Code of Conduct: Competition or Cooperation?

As the world enters the 21st century, the essential outlines of future global geopolitics are appearing. In the place of the old “petrified” international system formed by the Cold War, a highly volatile, strongly asymmetric and less predictable—or perhaps barely predictable—security environment is emerging. While opportunities for rapid economic development and enhanced political stability are expanding, the world faces a wide variety of actual and probable threats: various forms of extremism and terrorism; domestic disputes and conflicts; local and regional interstate wars; and the dangers generated by proliferation of weapons and military technologies. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 underlined the prospect of a new war—a global fight between terrorist networks and responsible political entities and nations. All these developments suggest that instead of arriving at “the end of history,” as some predicted a decade ago, mankind now finds itself facing “the return of history.” This new era will be full of opportunities, but will also hold uncertainties, temptations, risks, and challenges.