Unipolar or bipolar?

My father once told me that when the world was bipolar, Indonesia had one of the strongest military in the southern hemisphere. Then, I could not understand why that was the case because I was born and spend my entire life in a unipolar world. Recent events however have made me understand things better.

To put it quite simply, you cannot play one power against another in a unipolar world but can do so in a bipolar world. When one does not want to provide you with assistance, you always have the alternative option of engaging the other. The lack of military assistance provided to the East Timorese by the Australian has led them to request for assistance from China. In a unipolar world, there will be no gunboats and army barracks for the East Timorese. Additionally, in light of the delay in the funding promised by several developed nations to the Libyan Transitional National Council, one wonders if the ongoing visit by Mustafa Abdel-Jalil to China has got anything to do with this.

Whether the desired wishes of countries are good or bad remain open to debate. What is clear is that these wishes are more likely to be fulfilled in a bipolar world.