Cold-War period
During the Cold War period the world was divided into the 'free world', the communist 'block' and non-aligned 'third world'. Since the end of the Cold War this has changed.
Since the Cold War, is it fair to say that the ideological differences have been completely replaced by cultural ones?
How to define a similar culture? For example would China be seen to be culturally or ideologically dissimilar to the United States or both? Would China and Japan be considered to have similar cultures or more likely to be aligned?