eBooks - Politics & Government - Politics - Robert Kagan - The Return of History and the End of Dreams
The Return of History and the End of Dreams eBooks
by Robert Kagan
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Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
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Windows PC, Windows Mobile 5.0-6.0, Pocket PC 2003 Features
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Palm, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, Windows PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch Features
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The Return of History and the End of Dreams Summary
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In the early 1990s, the optimism was understandable and almost universal. The collapse of the communist empire and the apparent embrace of democracy by Russia seemed to augur a new era of global convergence. The great adversaries of the Cold War suddenly shared many common goals, including a desire for economic and political integration. Even after the political crackdown that began in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and disturbing signs of instability in Russia after 1993, most Americans and Europeans believed China and Russia were on a path toward liberalism. Boris Yeltsin's Russia seemed committed to the liberal model of political economy and closer integration with the West. The Chinese government's commitment to economic opening, it was hoped, would inevitably produce a political opening, whether Chinese leaders wanted it or not. Such determinism was characteristic of post--Cold War thinking. In a globalized economy, most believed, nations had no choice but to liberalize, first economically, then politically, if they wanted to compete and survive. As national economies approached a certain level of per capita income, growing middle classes would demand legal and political power, which rulers would have to grant if they wanted their nations to prosper. Since democratic capitalism was the most successful model for developing societies, all societies would eventually choose that path. In the battle of ideas, liberalism had triumphed. As Francis Fukuyama famously put it, "At the end of history, there are no serious ideological competitors left to liberal democracy." The economic and ideological determinism of the early post--Cold War years produced two broad assumptions that shaped both policie... |
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eBooks - Titles - Authors - Politics & Government - Politics - Robert Kagan - The Return of History and the End of Dreams