Following the end of the east-west confrontation after 1990, the "West" appeared to have been the victor in the contest between different systems. However, the "superiority" of the "West" was not confirmed in the years following the millennium, and the world has become neither more clearly ordered nor more peaceful. In a well-founded and convincing way, this book shows that the West - precisely through its values and its identity - is capable of developing a persuasive political strategy to meet problem situations in an increasingly fragmenting world. The new dual strategy presented here, of "external self-limitation and internal self-assertion", could give the West greater stability and at the same time allow it to engage better with an inevitably multipolar world order.

Autorentext
Prof. Heinz Theisen teaches political science at the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia in Cologne.

Zusammenfassung
Following the end of the east-west confrontation after 1990, the "West" appeared to have been the victor in the contest between different systems. However, the "superiority" of the "West" was not confirmed in the years following the millennium, and the world has become neither more clearly ordered nor more peaceful. In a well-founded and convincing way, this book shows that the West - precisely through its values and its identity - is capable of developing a persuasive political strategy to meet problem situations in an increasingly fragmenting world. The new dual strategy presented here, of "external self-limitation and internal self-assertion", could give the West greater stability and at the same time allow it to engage better with an inevitably multipolar world order.