 After the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, the term hyperpower began to be applied to the United States as the sole remaining superpower of the Cold War era.This term, popularized by French foreign minister Hubert Védrine in the late 1990s, is controversial and the validity of classifying the United States in this way is disputed.One notable opponent to this theory is Samuel P. Huntington, who rejects this theory in favor of a multipolar balance of power.