Amin describes the past few decades as the period of capitalist offensive. From among the causes of the Gulf War, he stresses the interests in oil and notes about the monarchies in the Gulf region, that they are more like oil concessions than nation-states. Amin emphasises that in the present conflict, the North is unified, while the South is divided. In his opinion, the North-South difference can no longer be described by the differences between their levels of industrial developments, but rather by the differences in their financial systems, technologies and communication systems. When discussing the possibilities of opposition to the capitalist offensive, he raises the need for a United Nations Organisation which would take charge of the interests of the Third World, stating that the present UN is rather far from that.