Modern World History - Essay Example

Death-feud and antagonism between the states is one of the most dangerous evils which pressures mankind through all historical periods of time. In contrast to this confrontations, the primary goal of nation-states' policies is to ensure their survival. That is, states seek to preserve their independence or sovereignty in a hostile environment. During the XX centuries, two world wars showed that the world's fate hinged on the outcome of this massive effort to meet the Axis threat of world conquest and restore the balance of power.

In this hostile environment, the United Nations became a strong force which balanced confrontations and peace. The significance of the UN can be explained by the fact that previous attempts to achieve the world order had failed, but the end of the WWII demanded a strong international organization to ensure global peace. In 1945, despite the emergent differences between the United States and the Soviet Union, World War II, like all previous great-power wars, paved the way for a new world order.

The League of Nation had failed to meet new social and political landscape between the Second World War. In 1943, the Four Power Declaration advanced principles for allied collaboration in the period following the end of military confrontations (Hyde, 1960). The product of the Allies' determination to create a new international organization to manage the postwar international order was conceived in this and other wartime agreements. Consistent with the expectation that the great powers would cooperate to manage world affairs, China was promised a seat on the United Nations Security Council along with France and the Big Three.

The purpose was to guarantee that all of the dominant states would share responsibility for keeping the peace (Mcwhinney, 1984). In 1945, the UN represented a supranational level - a political body that exerted influence upon several national governments. On the other hand, the UN was used as 'a silent tool' of competition between the USA and USSR. Both countries used the United Nations not to keep the peace, but to pursue their competition with one another. As the most recent great-power war of the twentieth century, it still casts its shadow over the post-Cold War geostrategic landscape.

Perhaps the most certain feature of this otherwise uncertain environment was the ascendancy of the United States and the Soviet Union as its dominant powers (Debrix, 1999). Today, the UN has lost its strategic significance in contrast to 1945, and for this very reason many political leaders and scientist suppose that: "'the role of the United Nations as a whole in economic and social affairs, including its relationship to the Bretton Woods institutions needs to be re-thought and reinvigorated" (Murithi, 2003, p.3). The end of the Cold War and the War on Terror demonstrated that the USA can survive indefinitely.

Russia has made the transition over the last ten years to an independent democratic nation state. The emergence of new economic centers the Triad and European Union, NAFTA and ASEAN reduce the role and impact of the UN on the global peace and foreign relations. At the beginning of the 21st century, the global regulatory environment consists of a variety of governmental and nongovernmental agencies that enforce laws or set guidelines for conducting business and political affairs (Graham, 2003, p. 5). A change process lies at the