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OSSERVATORIO INTERNAZIONALE

During the Trump administration, the United States were not interested
in democratic transformation, and the number one politician of the country
did not seem suitable either to lead a world political actor. Seeing the situation,
the allies of the U.S. tried to keep a distance from the leading power of the
NATO alliance. This helped China and Russia as it provided the foundation of
a division that was found desirable in Beijing and Moscow.
The Biden-administration has been facing the Gargantuan task to present
continuity in some crucial areas of the country’s foreign policy, including or
rather first and foremost, great power competition while restoring the interna-
tional prestige of the U.S. simultaneously. This requires keeping the focus on
great power competition, pursue to achieve results with adequate attention to
the interests of its allies and partners in difference from the Trump administra-
tion, and use a different host of means. This view has remained present in the
view of Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he concluded: “We make
mistakes, we have reversals, we take steps back… but… we… confront those
challenges openly, publicly, transparently, not trying to ignore them, not trying
to pretend they don’t exist, not trying to sweep them under a rug” .
(21)

5. Conclusions
The birth of a new bipolar international system is expected in the coming
decades that will be characterized by the mutual relationship, and most proba-
bly rivalry, of the two dominant actors. Bearing in mind that the parties do not
yet have long-term experience to deal with each other under the current distri-
bution of power and influence this period will be associated with instability. In
extreme cases, it is also possible that war would break out between the two sta-
tes. If this does not happen, the question will arise whether this demonstrates
that nuclear powers continue to avoid direct collisions or, if it were to take
place between them, they would fight with conventional weapons, fought as a
conflict of lower intensity. This was seen in 1969 between the Soviet Union and
China and in the recent clash between India and China when nuclear powers
collided directly but kept their confrontation strictly non-nuclear. If the world
succeeds to avoid war completely, rivalry will be limited to other areas.
The bipolar structure will increasingly put other actors in front of a choi-
ce, which will form the periphery of one or the other pole.
(21) DEBENEDETTI, Gabriel, Secretary Swell on a Pissed-Off Planet: Antony Blinken, the impec-
cably polished secretary of state, faces a world that just might be post-diplomacy. Intelligencer,
March 30, 2021. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/antony-blinken-foreign-
policy.html. Accessed August 29, 2021.

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