Polarity of the System 69
argues that there was a multipolar system between the two world wars,
but unlike other researchers, he characterizes the system in that period as
a tripolar system.^4
1946–1991: researchers are nearly unanimous about this period having a
bipolar system.^5
1992–2016: concerning this period, four key approaches may be stated:
(1) Mearsheimer states that once the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union
dissolved in the late 1980s, the system became multipolar again;^6 (2) Hun-
tington’s definition of this international system is original and interesting
and according to him it is uni-multipolar;^7 (3) Schweller, Walter Mead, and
L. Silk argue that the world after the Cold War became a tripolar world;^8
and, (4) like me, Christopher Layne, Wohlforth,^9 and other researchers
argue that it is a unipolar system.^10