PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Changing International Political Order
Bipolar structure of the world is more stable than the multipolar one. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
BODY FLOW Waltz (1979): bipolarity most stable — national interests align with bloc interests, two powers leave little room for miscalculation — Mearsheimer puts it in reverse: "back to the future" after 1991, both World Wars grew from multipolar systems, fluid balances let ambitious powers expand — Gaddis: the result was the "Long Peace"
Body flow
COUNTER-VIEW classical realists read the same record differently — Morgenthau + Carr: multipolarity more stable — alliances balance, limited wars threaten no one directly — two rigid blocs make every dispute zero-sum — Berlin, Cuba: that calm could turn nuclear
Counter-view
CONCLUSION ROUTES R1 Waltz himself credits nuclear weapons with keeping the war cold — discipline came from deterrence and crisis management — no structure supplies that alone — bipolarity narrows conflict; peace still has to be managed R2 true as description (fewer war-triggers), weak as a law of peace — today's US-China "new bipolarity" carries deep interdependence and behaves nothing like the first — stability follows statecraft, not the count of poles
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
