World War ll was a tragedy of unequaled proportions. It also marked major change in the nature and operation of the world political system. On the political front, a series of shifts in the system occurred in the decades after 1945 that involved the actors and, indeed, the polar structure of the system itself. World War II finally destroyed the European-based multipolar structure. It was replaced by a bipolar system dominated by the Soviet Union and the United States. To those who experienced its anguished intensity, the hostility between the two superpowers to augur an unending future of bipolar confrontation and peril. As is often true, the view that present will also be the future proved shortsighted. The bipolar era was brief. Significant crack in the structure were evident by the 1960s: by 1992, it was history.