Today, an approach of the new configuration of the international relations eludes, almost spectacularly, some traditional theoretical concepts which have worked their way up within the context of the historical evolution of this discipline.

The contemporary debates and reflections regarding the new balance of power, established after the disappearance of the communist system and the implosion of the former USSR, highlight the fact that the global society lies in an extremely contradictory phase, mainly due to some complex phenomena such as globalization, the concentration of the energy potential in some states which dictate the vectors of national behaviours, regional and zone conflicts, Russia's loss of its role as superpower, the United States' involvement in some situations as provider of security for the whole world.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the disappearance of some states, the appearance of others, the Gulf War and the war from the former Yugoslavia are the main factors which have led to these types of approaches of the relations among states, to the evolution of some policies of rapid strategic movements within a geography of power and supremacy crises. The legitimate order, once controlled by the USA and the USSR has been replaced by a different international order which has as consequence the imposition of some new rules, of the hierarchy of discretionary power, but also of some attitudes dictated by pride and political opportunism.

We have all witnessed how Russia acted arbitrarily in the European energy crisis using its own international codes of behaviour, performing the idea of direct economic confrontation, of discouraging the equilibriums and of bilateral or multilateral treatments depending on the ideological partisanship. The same situation applies to the USA who fuelled a conflict of regional supremacy in the Gulf for access to the rich oil and gas resources, despite some immense material and human losses on both sides involved in war. Of course the detente and the forced democratization are expensive and become dangerous at a certain point in time.

Not accidentally did Henry Kissinger speak of "our principles and our objectives". It depends on whether these principles and objectives more or less affect us who, for some years, have been dreaming of a multidimensional balance of power which will harmoniously balance the force tendencies of some and the peace ones of others. However, there is need for another balance, the economic one, in which more and more states place their wealth and aspirations.

This work is an incentive in this sense.

Some of the texts included in the present book have already been published in various issues of the Review of Political Sciences.