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This paper looks at changes in international order nowadays, with a focus on debates about unipolarity and multipolarity. The hypothesis of the study is that the world is currently experiencing a short stage of uni-multipolarity, characterised by high instability, which is generated by the rise of new regional hegemons, the changes at the top ofpower hierarchies, the diminishinggap between the US (as the only superpower ofthe moment) and the risingpowers. The conflict between global order and regional order is, implicitly, a conflict between Western and emerging countries development models. The following decade will probably confirm the tendency for a comeback to a new type of bipolar order. An analysis of the current stage of international relations reveals that we are now witnessing double bipolarity: an American- Chinese economic bipolarity and an American-Russian military bipolarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]