From the Themi Foundation editions, the book "Planetary Politics after the Cold War" by Panagiotis Kondylis, which has been out of print for a long time, is being released again. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism do not mean either the "end of history" or the simple transition of the international system from a bipolar to a multipolar structure. On the contrary, they constitute a historical turning point and the beginning of a new phase in the history of planetary politics of the New Era, which began with the great discoveries and capitalist trade and then experienced the greatest upheavals with European imperialism in the 19th century and with the competition between East and West in the 20th century. However, in order to grasp the current character of global politics, this prehistory is not enough. It is also necessary to examine the past and future of the dominant state, the interweaving of politics with economic and perhaps biological factors, the new functions of nationalism, and the new possibilities of conducting war. Finally, the political consequences of the ecumenism of human rights and the prospects of a global order in relation to explosive ecological and population problems must be discussed. The purpose of these analyses cannot of course be the prediction of individual events, but the exploration of the driving forces and central tendencies of planetary politics.
An epilogue written specifically for the Greek edition of the book examines the prerequisites, parameters, and illusions of Greek national politics within the current European and global conditions.