Abstract
In his Glance at today's world (1931), French poet Paul Valéry wrote "Le temps du monde fini commence" (1). By "monde fini", he meant that the world now had well-established geographical limits, implying there was no more Terra incognita or utopia where to transpose our dreams, either in reality or mentally, and that countries were to become increasingly interdependent. Problems were to become world-scale ones, which should only be dealt with on the international level, through an increased cooperation between states. At the eve of this new century, the first part of Valéry's prediction has come true. For a number of technological and political reasons, the world has come through a process of cultural and economic "globalisation" which has not yet come to an end. By "globalisation", I mean the increasing economic interdependence and the multiplication of trade and cultural relations between regions of the world that barely had any contacts a century ago. Now, trying to know if the 21st century be less conflictual than the 20th makes it necessary to examine the long-term trends of world politics, such as globalisation. Globalisation will certainly go on in the 21st century, and we need to know if it will be more a factor of peace or a factor of trouble. Many politicians, economists and IR theorists argue that globalisation is a factor of peace, arguing that increased economic interdependence cannot but lead countries to cooperate.
