For nearly 50 years, world affairs were driven largely by the strategic, economic and political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War came hopes for a new global alignment -- a "new world order" in the words of U.S. President George Bush -- that would establish a multipolar framework for peace and stability. But as recent events in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia prove, that "peace dividend" has proven elusive.

For his book "After the Cold War: Essays on the Emerging World Order," international analyst Keith Philip Lepor invited a diverse spectrum of world leaders to assess the possibilities and perils of the new "international system." Click on the menu at left to read excerpts from six who contributed to the book, published by the University of Texas Press in 1997.