Ordem Internacional e Multilateralismo

Japan’s role in a multipolar world, por Hisashi Owada

International relations were being reshaped in the beginning of the 1990s, mainly due to the deep transformation East-West relations were undergoing in which the “era of confrontation” was being replaced by an “era of dialogue”. The INF agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union was over, the START negotiations in progress and, in Europe, negotiations on CFE and CSBM were raising hope for many Europeans – both in the East and the West. This process of structural transformation in the international system posed, notwithstanding, serious challenges, both globally and regionally. Against factors that have brought about this new context, the present study seeks to determine what the responses of the industrialized democracies of the West should be to these circumstances. Specifically, this study devotes itself to the consequences and elements that concern Japan’s response from a non-European perspective of the issue.