## The development of a multipolar world  
The collapse of the Soviet empire, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, took all political commentators by surprise. Starting with glasnost, the attempted reform movement launched by President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet empire unravelled within a few months (Sebestyen, 2010). The world was left with a single dominant imperial power that tried to impose its political views on the rest of the planet. Building on the collapse of the Soviet Union, viewed by some as the triumph over the 'evil empire' (Fukuyama, 1989, 1992; Huntington, 1993, 1996; Sebestyen, 2010), a power group of ideologues termed 'neoconservatives' took control of the foreign policy of the United States of America and devised a new doctrine of 'pre-emptive strikes' against whoever challenged the world domination of the United States. The first Gulf War, triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, took place in 19901991. The invading army was expelled by an international coalition led by the United States of America. The neoconservatives rose to full executive power with the election of G. W. Bush and Dick Cheney, respectively as President and Vice-President of the United States, in November 2000. During the chaotic rule of President Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999), the Russian Federation was totally absent from the international stage. On 11 September 2001, the attack on the