ON MODERN GEOPOLITICAL PLURALISM OR ONE-NATION HEGEMONISM

The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bipolar system of international relations, so many people believed, opened up unprecedented opportunities for restructuring the world on the basis of general human values and interests. The world community has, it would seem, received a unique historical chance for the formation of a new international order on just legal principles, and to enter the new century and millennium free from the past legacy of confrontation. The threats of a new order of international relations have replaced the threats and contradictions of the bipolar world, dominated by Soviets and Americans. In fact, threats to security may even be accentuated in the condition of greater interdependence of states. The stability of many countries and whole regions is shaken by conflicts connected with interethnic and in-terconfessional tensions, religious extremism, and aggressive separatism. The danger of proliferation of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery is particularly menacing. The gap between the poor and the rich countries does not shrink. Whilst the ecological and climatic equilibrium of the planet is being violated, the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol can make this international initiative less effective. The narcotics trade has grown, as has organized crime, which has increasingly crossed national frontiers and assumed truly global proportions. The course of international developments was indeed greatly impacted by the end of the "bipolar system." States not only found themselves less well protected against the old "diseases," but faced the new ones too. Crucially, adequate mechanisms to ensure international stability in the face of these new changes were not created. This essay will explain geopolitical dynamics in Eurasia, assess whether Mackinder's Heartland thesis can be used to shed light on them, and ask what lessons foreign policy planners in the Central Asian region can derive from this.

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