Sistemi di frammentazione e riallocazione del potere internazional : dai processi di diffusione di potenza alla frammentazione nello spazio ex-sovietico e nell'Europa Orientale

The phenomenon of post-cold war fragmentation, above all the gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and the re-emergence of a number of sub-national (ethnic-groups, tiny an small states etc.) and supranational actors, have taken scholars of international law and politics by surprise, thus baring in a flash the link between what we have come to regards as international politics and the exclusive, central position of the nation-state. The author analyses interpretative models of fragmentation within the contemporary theory of International Relations (including new theories of Russian and Eastern-European researchers) to see which of them best captures the essence and the dynamics of the fragmentation in the post-Cold War world. In fact, "orthodox" traditional theory is in difficulty in the face of new international developments, because it continues to a state-centered approach which is increasingly outdated. It is in this fact that the bugbear of a "return to the Middle Ages", of a "Neo-Medievalization", proves to be, despite itself, an important cognitive aspect. The contemporary fragmentation is more deep than the one which followed the First World War and does not bring the previous historical circumstances, but places it outside the modern model of the community of nations : it is not a regression, but a departure from it. This study offer an investigation of the break-up of states in Eastern Europe, as well as an explanation (theoretical and empirical) of the impact of this transformation on international relations and suggests some theoretical insights. The author took into account both domestic factors and those international aspects which influenced the course of disintegration of states. It is possible to establish the causal significance of various factors and thus lay the all-important groundwork for future, possible general theory of post- Cold War fragmentation. The close of an historical cycle of concentration of power has above all produced a profound collapse of territorial state, a crisis of statehood and of the constituents of the idea of state, particularly of borders and sovereignty. At present the former Yugoslav and soviet spaces are increasingly under the sway of uncontrollable forces of disintegration.