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The global scenario has experienced many profound changes in recent years, and has forced many people to rethink the terms in which they saw the way international relations work. The events have shaken many well-established schools of thought, and the way the world stage was perceived. With extensive globalization, and integration of previously well defined regions; both geographically and politically taking place, the globe is becoming an ever smaller community. Then there is the role of non state actors, such as International corporations, organized criminal enterprises and terrorist networks operating around the globe, who are not bound within the defined territories of sovereign countries. The widespread information revolution, the ease and freedom with which information can be accessed, shared and transmitted, has had a tremendous impact on almost everyone on this planet. The question is whether all these recent changes have affected the nature of world politics. Is globalization good or bad? Were the problems associated with the globalization anticipated? If so, how are they explained, and is there a way around them? The events of September 11 were just an eye-opener, an event which shows the reach of people who wish to cause massive destabilization. But it was not something that was considered impossible before. The point is that investigation revealed that the people who had plotted and executed this horrendous act had used sophisticated methods of communications and information relaying, and had obtained finances through means which were considered exotic not five years ago, if not impossible, but are now commonplace, and can be obtained by almost anyone, anywhere, the result of extensive “globalization” and breakdown of barriers. Nowadays, with the press of a button, large sums of money can electronically be sent from, say Indonesia to Austria, in less than a second. And it is possible to remove traces of such transactions. This is an example of an information revolution, and such conveniences have helped everyone, from corporations which can now trade to previously inaccessible regions to some expatriates sending remittances back home.
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