Between 1989 and 1990, the Soviet Union suffered from numerous revolutions in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and East Germany. This meant that the Soviet Union began to decay and by the 25 December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. During this time, international dynamics gradually switched from bipolarity to unipolarity with the US at the forefront of global affairs. It was a double-edged sword. The USA had a greater range to their influence but meant that "relatively small, peripheral and backward states will be able to emerge rapidly as threats not only to regional, but to world, security." These states would not be influenced by multiple superpowers and thus, would not be used as a proxy war.