International relations since 1989

International relations since 1989 covers the main trends in world affairs in the post–Cold War era.

Trends

The 21st century has been marked by growing economic globalization and integration, with consequent increased risk to interlinked economies, as exemplified by the Great Recession. This period has also seen the expansion of communications with mobile phones and the Internet, which have caused fundamental societal changes in business, politics, and how individuals networked along common interests and sought information.

Worldwide competition for natural resources has risen due to growing populations and industrialization, especially in India, China, and Brazil. The increased demands are contributing to increased environmental degradation and to global warming.

International tensions were heightened in connection with the efforts of some nuclear-armed states to induce North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic became the first pandemic since 1919 to substantially disrupt global trading and cause recessions in the global economy.

1990s

The 1990s saw a dramatic advance in technology, with the World Wide Web. Predominant factors and trends included the continued mass mobilization of capital markets through neoliberalism, the thawing and sudden end of the Cold War after four decades of fear, the beginning of the widespread proliferation of new media such as the Internet and email, and increasing skepticism towards government. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a realignment and reconsolidation of economic and political power across the world and within countries. The dot-com bubble of 1997–2000 brought wealth to some entrepreneurs before its crash between 2000 and 2001.

New ethnic conflicts started in Africa and the Balkans, causing the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides. Signs of any resolution of tensions between Israel and the Arab world remained elusive despite the progress of the Oslo Accords. On a peaceful note, after 30 years of violence, the Troubles in Northern Ireland came to a standstill with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Collapse of communist parties

Communist party support collapsed rapidly in most of the world (outside East Asia). Adherents were shocked at the failure of Gorbachev to reform and reestablish communism in Russia, and the quick overthrow in Eastern Europe in 1989. The Kremlin ended financial aid and leadership roles. For example, financial aid to multiple countries in Latin America was ended in budget cutbacks.

Rise of neoliberalism

Neoliberalism became a main trend in many developed countries. It meant heavy reliance on market capitalism, and global flows of investment, together with deregulation and cutbacks in welfare spending. Economist Milton Friedman, leader of the Chicago school of economics, was a prominent exponent. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had led the way in the United States and the United Kingdom.

2000s

Worldwide economic downturn

The early part of the decade saw the long-time predicted breakthrough of economic giant China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade. To a lesser extent, India also benefited from an economic boom, which saw the two most populous countries becoming an increasingly dominant economic force. The rapid catching-up of emerging economies with developed countries sparked some protectionist tensions during the period and was partly responsible for an increase in energy and food prices at the end of the decade. The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with the crisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007 and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions. The 2008 financial crisis led to the Great Recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world.

Internet The growth of the Internet contributed to globalization during the decade, which allowed faster communication among people around the world. Social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch no matter where they were, as long as they had an internet connection. The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, established from 2002 to 2006. Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009, when Facebook overtook it. E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade and began to replace paper-based "snail mail" as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in distant locations.

War on terror The war on terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The International Criminal Court was formed in 2002. In 2003, a United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, and the Iraq War led to the end of Saddam Hussein's rule as Iraqi President and the Ba'ath Party in Iraq. Al-Qaeda and affiliated Islamist militant groups performed terrorist acts throughout the decade. The Second Congo War, the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended in July 2003. Further wars that ended included the Algerian Civil War, the Angolan Civil War, the Sierra Leone Civil War, the Second Liberian Civil War, the Nepalese Civil War, and the Sri Lankan Civil War. Wars that began included the conflict in the Niger Delta, the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, and the Mexican drug war.Chharles Webel, and Mark Tomass, eds. Assessing the War on Terror: Western and Middle Eastern Perspectives (Taylor & Francis, 2017).Tom Lansford, 9/11 and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A Chronology and Reference Guide (ABC-CLIO, 2011).

Climate change Climate change and global warming became common concerns in the 2000s. Prediction tools made significant progress during the decade. Since the 1990s, research into historical and modern climate change has expanded rapidly. Measurement networks such as the Global Ocean Observing System, Integrated Carbon Observation System, and NASA's Earth Observing System now enable monitoring of the causes and effects of ongoing change. Research has also broadened, linking many fields such as Earth sciences, behavioral sciences, economics, and climate security. UN-sponsored organizations such as the IPCC gained influence, and studies such as the Stern report influenced public support for paying the political and economic costs of countering climate change. The global temperature kept climbing during the decade. In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade. The WMO's findings were later echoed by the NASA and the NOAA.Andrew E. Dessler, and Edward A. Parson, eds. The science and politics of global climate change: A guide to the debate (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

2010s

The decade began with an economic recovery from the Great Recession. Global economic recovery accelerated during the latter half of the decade, fueled by robust consumer spending, increased investment in infrastructure, and the emergence of new technologies. However, the recovery developed unevenly. Socioeconomic crises caused by austerity, inflation, and an increase in commodity prices, led to unrest in many countries, including the 15-M and occupy movements. Unrest in some countries in the Arab world evolved into revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain as well as civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen in a regional phenomenon that was commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. Meanwhile Europe had to grapple with a debt crises that was pronounced early in the decade. Shifting social norms saw a growth of LGBT rights and female representation.Jason Strong, The 2010s: Looking Back at a Dramatic decade (2019) online

The United States continued to retain its superpower status while China sought to expand its influence in the South China Sea and in Africa through its economic initiatives and military reforms. It solidified its position as an emerging superpower despite conflicts caused by its territorial claims and internal security policies in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet. These developments led the United States to implement a containment policy and initiate a trade war against China. Elsewhere in Asia, the two Koreas improved their relations after a prolonged crisis between the two countries. The war on terror continued as a part of the U.S.'s continued military involvement in many parts of the world. U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden and The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist organization in 2014 erased the Syria-Iraq border, resulting in a multinational intervention against it. In Africa, South Sudan broke away from Sudan, and mass protests and various coups d'état saw longtime strongmen deposed. In the U.S., celebrity businessman Donald Trump was elected president amid an international wave of populism and neo-nationalism. The European Union experienced a migrant crisis in the middle of the decade and withdrawal of the United Kingdom as a member state following the historic United Kingdom EU membership referendum. Russia attempted to assert itself in international affairs, annexing Crimea in 2014.

Information technology progressed, with smartphones becoming widespread. The Internet of things saw substantial growth during the 2010s due to advancements in wireless networking devices, mobile telephony, and cloud computing. Advancements in data processing and the rollout of 4G broadband allowed data and information to disperse among domains at paces never before seen while online resources such as social media facilitated phenomena such as the Me Too movement and the rise of slacktivism, Woke culture and online call-out culture. Online nonprofit organisation WikiLeaks gained international attention for publishing classified information on topics including Guantánamo Bay, Syria, the Afghan and Iraq wars, and United States diplomacy. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on global surveillance, raising awareness on the role governments and private entities have in mass surveillance and information privacy.

2020s

COVID

Before COVID hit in 2020, economic conditions were faltering. The UN reported: World gross product growth slipped to 2.3 per cent in 2019—the lowest rate since the 2008 financial crisis. This slowdown is occurring alongside growing discontent with the social and environmental quality of economic growth, amid pervasive inequalities and the deepening climate crisis.UN, "World Economic Situation and Prospects: 2020" (2020) page viii.

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic quickly spread to over 200 countries and territories in the world. This pandemic has caused severe global economic disruption, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression. It led to postponement or cancellation of sporting, religious, political and cultural events, widespread supply shortages, leading to panic buying, and decreased emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Many countries have mandatory lockdowns on public movement, and there have been more than 600 million cases, resulting in more than 6 million deaths.

United States