Abstract
The thesis of de-globalisation as the dominant process needs to be seriously qualified. We are not witnessing a massive decline in trade and capital flows, but the rise of new economic powers and a confrontation between political and economic poles. In this polarisation, the states that have never disappeared are major players in a war with multiple dimensions. This war is both the cause and the consequence of widespread de-democratisation: the alliance of dictatorships, the rise of the extreme right in capitalist countries, the repression of democratic forces. Instead of giving substance to a «global left», we are witnessing its splintering under the effect of old campist reflexes.