In this updated study of global politics, Naom Chomsky challenges conventional definitions of the "New World Order". It is, he argues, nothing more than an ingenious piece of "historical engineering", whereby the pretexts for the Cold War - nuclear threat, Eastern Bloc menace - have been deftly replaced by a new set of convenient justifications for a Western agenda that remains largely unchanged. Chomsky draws together a wealth of historical detail in support of his argument, demonstrating that the basic rules of world order remain as they always have been. As revisionist historians and commentators continue the work of reshaping past and current history, this book offers an assault on the ligitimacy of the status quo, old and new, It is revised to include coverage of the latest developments in the Middle East peace process.