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So, for many years we have been waiting for this prophetic appointment. Round tables, newspapers, radio, television: every occasion seemed a good one to talk about the new world order; towards the end of '92 can be considered as the turning point in this direction. (8:2) And yet, here they are, half the world's politicians putting together the pieces of a never completed project, which perhaps started after the Second World War. Ideas initiating a process of peace, as history shows, is difficult to put into practice. Difficulties become of such entity and so many that sometimes they seem insuperable, especially in reference to the framework of international relations. Relations among nations can be incredibly problematic because of ethnic interrelationships in territories where for many years different people willingly or compellingly coexisted. (8:3) In the current historical context it is not easy to outline the scene of international relations. Their components are so many, so disordered and often contrasting. In September 1990 the President of the United States on the wave of the success attained in the Gulf War, with more than forty allied nations involved, had announced the understanding among these nations as the beginning of the realization of a "new world order". (8:4) In the short time that has passed since then, we already sense some perplexity about it. There are, in fact, references to the "new world disorder" or, more dramatically, to the "end of history". (8:5) It seems to me that the task we have to devote ourselves to today is to extrapolate from the bulk of the different events that swarm on the international scene, those useful elements that allow an objective evaluation of the current general situation, without indulging in excessive hopes or in dangerous skepticism. To such end it seems proper to outline some fundamental premises. First and foremost, the interdependence among nations seems inescapable especially in the field of economy where the growth of international trade, the integration of financial markets, the development and interrelationships of technologies, the common activity in medical research and technoscientific laboratories, space expeditions and new sources of energy converge. Another indisputable phenomenon is the internationalization of problems due, in part, to the pressures of developing countries on the rest of the world, We must take into consideration the demographic pressures and consequent massive immigration fomented by the mythical paradise of the whites, the dangers of extremist religious conflicts (not only Muslim), the proliferations of nuclear fission, the spread of drug abuse and infective diseases not yet conquered by medical science. (8:6) What we should watch with trepidation is the degree of reliability of some international institutions that should be the driving forces of international order. They should guarantee better control over interracial and religious phenomenon, intervene with new methods where men don't succeed in creating dialogue thereby causing, evidently, weighty conflictual situations and great suffering for the people involved.
(8:7)
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