As one half of the latest edition of Immanuel Wallerstein's Political Economy of the World System series, this collection offers cutting-edge theoretical directions to explain the structural crises of the 21st century world system. Contributors argue that the capitalist world system has reached a critical bifurcation point, a short period which will be characterized by a sudden shift in the long-term structural forces that have created and sustained the world as we know it. Writers challenge conventional thinking about the most significant structural crises that face the twenty-first century world system, including terrorism, debt, the growth of megacities as global actors, the emergence of a powerful transnational capitalist class, and the world ecological crisis. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.