The end of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union reassured people around the world who had lived in fear of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers. Yet the early euphoria over "peace dividends" and a "new world order" was premature. Conflicts within and between nation-states are springing up around the globe, challenging world leaders and ordinary citizens to find peaceful means for national, group, and individual self-determination.

In this book of specially commissioned essays, twenty world leaders assess the possibilities and perils of the new strategic, political, and economic interrelationships that are emerging around the world. They tackle such fundamental questions as: What is the future of the international system as we approach the twenty-first century? What will be the fate of disintegrating nation-states, and how will the international community respond? Has the nation-state outlived its usefulness? Are we beginning to witness the complete breakdown of the international system?

The contributors are:

• Ali Alatas (Indonesia)


• Tariq Aziz (Iraq)


• James A. Baker III (United States)


• Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan)


• Boutros Boutros-Ghali (United Nations)


• Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil)


• Osama El-Baz (Egypt)


• Eduardo Frei (Chile)


• Alberto Fujimori (Peru)


• Rachid Ghannouchi (eminent Islamic thinker)


• Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian Federation)


• Kamal Kharrazi (Iran)


• Andrei Kozyrev (Russian Federation)


• Leonid Kuchma (Ukraine)


• Nelson Mandela (South Africa)


• Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan)


• Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria)


• Muammar El-Qadhafi (Libya)


• Fidel Ramos (Philippines)


• Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao (India)

• Foreword (His Excellency Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Former President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
• Preface
• Introduction (Keith Philip Lepor)
• Part 1. The Post-Cold War Order: Conceptual Foundation
  • Toward the Twenty-first Century (His Excellency Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa)
  • The Post-Cold War Era: A View from the South (His Excellency Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil)
• Part 2. The International System in the Post-Cold War Order
  • The United Nations in a Post-Cold War Order (His Excellency Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations)
  • Challenge and Opportunity in the Post-Cold War Era: Building an International Environment Supportive of Democracy (His Excellency Shri P. V Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India)
  • The Post-Cold War Era: "Facts and Prospects" (His Excellency Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq)
• Part 3. The United States and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the Post-Cold War Order
  • Selective Engagement: Principles for American Foreign Policy in a New Era (The Honorable James A. Baker III, Former Secretary of State, United States)
  • Russia in the Multipolar World (The Honorable Andrei Kozyrev, Former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation)
  • Kazakhstan and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Inevitable Integration in the Post-Cold War Order (His Excellency Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
  • Ukraine: Identity in the Post-Cold War Era (His Excellency Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine)
• Part 4. Regional Divisions in the Post-Cold War Order
  • Iran's View of the Post-Cold War Era: Continuity and Change in the Region (His Excellency Dr. Kamal Kharrazi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Permanent Representative to the United Nations)
  • The Age of People Power in the Pacific (His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos, President of the Philippines)
  • Peru and Latin America in the Post-Cold War World (His Excellency Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru)
  • Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Challenges and Responses in the Post-Cold War Era (Her Excellency Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan)
  • The African Region in the Post-Cold War Global System (His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria)
• Part 5. The Nonaligned Movement and the View from the South
  • The Nonaligned Movement in the Post-Cold War Order: An Indonesian View (His Excellency All Alatas, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia)
  • The Third World and the Post-Cold War Order: Challenges and Contributions (The Honorable Dr. Osama El-Baz, Director for Political Affairs, Office of the President of Egypt)
• Part 6. Ideology in the Post-Cold War Order
  • Liberty and Solidarity: Post-Cold War Challenges to Democracy (His Excellency Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, President of the Republic of Chile)
  • A Revolutionary Perspective on the New World Order (His Excellency Muammar Abu Minyar El-Qadhafi, Revolutionary Leader of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)
  • Islam and the West: Concord or Inevitable Conflict (The Honorable Rachid Ghannouchi, Eminent Islamic Thinker and Leader of the Tunisian Opposition Party An-Nahdah)
• Contributors