UN General Assembly
2008

had to follow. We ended up with a privatization of the international community’s efforts in the fight against terrorism. The inertia of the unipolar world also revealed itself in other spheres of international life, including unilateral steps taken in anti-missile defence and the militarization of outer space as well as in attempts to bypass parity in arms control regimes, expansion of political-military blocs, and politicization 08-53129 2 of the issues of access to and transport of energy resources. The illusion of the existence of a unipolar world confused many. For some people, it generated a desire to place all of their eggs in one basket. In exchange for absolute loyalty, there was an expectation of carte blanche to resolve all problems, using any means. The emerging syndrome of complete permissiveness that developed led to a rampage on the night of 8 August, when aggression was unleashed on South Ossetia. The bombing of the sleeping city of Tskhinvali and the killing of civilians and peacekeepers trampled under foot all existing settlement agreements, thus putting an