America: The World’s Mediator?

Abstract

The end of the Cold War brought about a substantial restructuring ofmany aspects of the international political system, including its method for managing disputes. Under the Cold War's regime of bi-polarity, typically one of the "superpowers" would line up behind one participant to the dispute and the other "superpower" would line up behind the other. Bi-polarity frustrated dispute resolution because each of the disputing states would then have access to economic and military support, to the friendship of a permanent member of the Security Council, and to a network of alliances. The result, most commonly, was deadlock. The end of the Cold War seemed to bring hopes of avoiding such paralysis. The United States of America stepped into a new role, and as "the only remaining superpower" it took an increasingly active role in managing the disputes of other states.