In any case, power spaces will again be wrangled over, in a new world order.

The Second World War was followed by the Cold War and its bipolar domination order; the fall of the Berlin Wall brought about a unipolar order led by the United States as a planetary power, and until recent times globalization was conceived as a scenario for supranational military, economic and political institutions – kind of a world government. Now a multipolar world seems to be emerging, with three big blocks in the horizon: the Anglo-Saxon one; that of Germany and Russia + France, and the block formed by China and its Asian neighbors. Each pole seems ready to fight for its space and assumably drag to its side the smaller countries, which would only be able to choose the block they would be aligned with. Let us take a look to the process leading to this new agenda, and the moves of the main actors in these tumultuous times. This is a minimum compilation of selected documents published by the large media. Read in isolation, each item seems just one more item in the informative oversupply. Together, they herald the terms of the future struggle.

September 26

German Leaders Blame US for Financial Crisis

"The United States, and let me emphasize, the United States is solely to be blamed for the financial crisis. They are the cause for the crisis and it is not Europe and it is not the Federal Republic of Germany."

The finance minister also predicted, "The world will never be as it was before the crisis; the financial system will become more multipolar. Wall Street will never be what it was."

February 6

Sino-US trade war will worsen global crisis

There are rising worries among the international community that China and the United States are going to a trade war at a time when the world desperately needs concerted efforts to tackle the escalating global financial crisis. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner accused China of currency manipulation. China will not tolerate US intervention in its exchange rate policymaking.

March 10

Stiglitz Calls for Global Solution to Crisis

"The UN is the only institution that can push through the necessary measures. "We need a new start."

March 12

Swiss action sparks talk of currency war

The Swiss National Bank moved to weaken the Swiss franc on Thursday, the first time a big central bank has intervened in the foreign exchange markets since Japan sought to weaken the yen in 2004.

"Let the currency wars begin," said Chris Turner at ING Financial Markets.

Countries around the world faced with the constraint of zero interest rate levels might feel it was acceptable to intervene to weaken their currencies in order to ease monetary conditions, he said, adding that other export-dependent economies such as Japan would "probably be at the head of the queue".