Who rules the world?During the cold war, the answer was simple: the States, the superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.In the immediate post cold war, the answer was still possible: were no longer two, but one hegemonic power.It was the unipolar moment of the American Empire.But, today, who runs the real world?The established global powers or the emerging regional powers?The global finance or the social networks?The global media chains or the terrorist networks?The answer is, today, a lot harder.This article attempts an answer at the crossroads of two simultaneous but conflicting trends: the logic of globalization and the logic of Westphalia.And argues that the fundamental contradiction between the political players who have legitimacy but not the ability to manage global issues and the players of globalization who have the ability but lack legitimacy