The Concept of World Order and Conflict Resolution Processes after 1989 *

First, this essay aims at clarifying the meaning of the concept of world order. Order has often been perceived as some sort of government capability, but reference to its common sense meaning (the existence of an unity of measure) has been lost in the IRs literature. In this essay order has been defined as a government capability that has to be linked to some fixed values (the unities of measure), that in post/1989 four power arenas are: (military) peace, (political) democracy, (economic) market and (cultural) national self/determination. In fact, as current major powers usually prefer multi/cultural states, current world politics is characterized by a “near” order. In the second (empirical) part of the essay, post-’89 armed conflict resolution attempts are analyzed, starting from Galtung’s analytic models. A specific section is devoted to the United Nation peacekeeping interventions. Some proposals for a more successful conflict management, within the “constructivist” Peace Research tradition, are advanced in the final part of the essay.