EN
The paper surveys the most important current international trends. Based on the most up to date literature, and polemically referring to it, the author demonstrates the appearance of the need for growing unity and cooperation in the world in the field of economy and politics, as it is manifest in several areas. The process has become tangible with the appearance of global capital in the contemporary age, followed by the formation of an international organisation of global scale and by regional integration. The author also demonstrates that the concept of globalisation covers several processes and he also surveys its brief history. Next he studies the possibilities of global culture. In this context he quotes among others the work of I. Wallerstein related to the problematics of the world system, and the role of the US, the EU, Japan and China, and also of the major regions. He also deals with the phenomenon of nationalism, and with the issues of national sovereignty. He devotes major space to the much debated work of Samuel Huntington and refutes it on the basis of recent processes. Partly based on Huntington, he analyses the existing or possible conflicts between the different cultures. He calls attention to the changing and growing global role of China. He also deals with the phenomenon of multiculturalism, with the EU, and particularly with its relationship to NATO, with other regional organisations and their internal conflicts. Finally, he focuses on the EU, in which the constitutional order capable of governing the political and economic activities of the Member States has not yet been created.