This paper argues that two parallel developments in the latter half of the 20th century--the accelerated worldwide expansion of transnational capital and the ensuing Cold War between the rival superpowers (the US and the USSR)--coupled with the recent collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist states, have led to the resurgence of market forces across the globe, affecting the course of economic development in a significant way. The renewed globalization of capital through the East-West divide and throughout the Third World in this most recent period of transnational capitalist expansion, has ushered in a new set of contradictions, especially in the former socialist states, that have plunged these societies into a deep economic crisis and social dislocation.
The paper outlines these contradictions and provides an analysis of the social forces involved in and affected by the unfolding political-economic transformations--forces that will ultimately determine the outcome of these transformations in the next phase of the global struggle for power and domination.

Berch Berberoglu - Department of Sociology- University of Nevada