Beneath the millennial shine of political optimism and technological advance lurk a set of deep uncertainties: global inequality is growing; weapons of mass destruction are spreading; strident assertions of identity divide peoples and states; overall, there is a marked lack of effective co-ordination and reduced confidence in the power of people, ideas and democratic processes to achieve change. This important book by a leading observer of International Relations provides a critical but cautiously optimistic assessment of the state and prospects of the world at 2000.