Russia-Ukraine War and the Changing Global System

Abstract

The study examined the Russia-Ukraine war and the changing global system. The study is anchored on the balance of power theory as propounded by Hans Morgenthau in 1966 and later expanded by Kenneth Waltz and Christopher Layne. The Ex-Post Facto (After the fact) research design was used for the study. Data was gotten through secondary sources like, textbooks, newspapers, journal articles and internet materials. Qualitative analysis was used to analyse the data, although figure was presented where required. The study found out that before the Russia-Ukraine war there was a global system which is bipolarity with two opposing alliances during the cold war, controlled by United States and Soviet Union. The finding also showed that after the fall of the Soviet Union the global system changed to a unipolar system with United States in charge, this is seen in its resources were the GNP in 2011 was 15,290 billion dollars as compared to 7.298 billion dollars of China and Russia which was 1, 581 billion dollars. The finding of the study showed that Russia’s notion of a polycentric world stems from the belief that, because of its decentralized nature, it will be easier for Russia to realize its ambitions as a pole, thereby expanding its power. However, the study concluded the global system that was in existence before the Russia-Ukraine war was bipolar and later changed to a unipolar system after the fall of the Soviet Union, but the Russia-Ukraine war has drastically changed the global system to a new polycentric system.