MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

TRANSCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA ART
part of an order. Systems are arrangements in which several units or
parts are assembled by some form of regular interaction. Basically,
systems are apparently shorter arrangements across which global power
distribution is identiied. For instance, if the system is bipolar, then the
schema of global power sharing is between solely two major actors,
whose interaction affects the whole human polity. The recently bygone
bipolar system is reminiscent of this perceivable experience. Systems
are component parts of an order. Modern human history presents
several such consciously construed orders, each of which covers a
longer historical space of time as compared to the systems these orders
encompass. History of the human polity emphasizes that the orders
and systems that have occurred, heretofore, have functioned in favor of
a single power or a group of powers, such as chieftains, empires, and
states. This is in agreement with Diamond who claims that the recorded
history of politics indicates the evolution of organizational complexities
of the human polity ranging from less complex ones to the more complex
structures. 5 Achieving and maintaining an order requires different
approaches for different theorists. For instance the neorealist approach
assumes that order is achieved via an automatic balancing mechanism, 6
while the approach of the English School suggests that order is achieved
and actively protected through a set of institutional mechanisms. The
idea of international order as relecting an institutional arrangement has
also been developed within the liberal tradition (American School) of
international relations. 7
It is possible to list three such orders and about six systems since the
seventieth century. These include: the Westphalian order and its three
systems, the twentieth century order and its two systems, as well as, the
emergent twenty-irst century order and its initial system 8
5 DIAMOND, J.: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. New York
: Norton, 1999, p. 226-289.
6 WALTZ, K.: Theory of International Politics. Reading : Addison Wesley, 1979,
p. 212.
7 KRASNER, S. D. (ed.): International Regime. Ithaca : Cornell University
Press, 1983. Also see KEOHANE, R.: International Institutions and State
Power: Essays in International Relations Theory. Boulder, CO : Westview
Press, 1989, and IKENBERRY, J. G.: After Victory: Institutions, Strategic
Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars. Princeton :
Princeton University Press, 2001. There is a wonderful explanation on this
also by WEBB, M. C. and KRASNER, S.D.: Hegemonic Stability Theory: An
Empirical Assessment. Review of International Studies 15, 1989, p. 183–98.
8 CUTLER, R.: The Complex Evolution of International Orders and the Current
311