I first learned about Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis in an undergraduate international relations class in 1999 or 2000. We also learned about Samuel Huntington’s counter, “the clash of civilizations.” While Fukuyama theorized (hoped?) that history, in the sense of ideological struggle, had ended with the Cold War and the triumph of liberal democracy, Huntington said that future wars would be between cultures and belief systems (civilizations, if you like) rather than nation-states as such. Huntington seems to have been right: September 11, the War on Terror, the rise of ISIS and many other events of the past two decades fit his thesis. Meanwhile, Russia and much of the old Eastern bloc never developed robust, liberal democracies. China figured out capitalism with a statist, Maoist veneer, and took Hong Kong back in the process.
Poetry at the End of the World
Poetry at the End of the World
Poetry at the End of the World
I first learned about Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis in an undergraduate international relations class in 1999 or 2000. We also learned about Samuel Huntington’s counter, “the clash of civilizations.” While Fukuyama theorized (hoped?) that history, in the sense of ideological struggle, had ended with the Cold War and the triumph of liberal democracy, Huntington said that future wars would be between cultures and belief systems (civilizations, if you like) rather than nation-states as such. Huntington seems to have been right: September 11, the War on Terror, the rise of ISIS and many other events of the past two decades fit his thesis. Meanwhile, Russia and much of the old Eastern bloc never developed robust, liberal democracies. China figured out capitalism with a statist, Maoist veneer, and took Hong Kong back in the process.