The End of History or the Beginning of a New Era

Recent Geopolitical Events in Perspective

Abstract

A senior figure in the American State Department wrote in an article in Foreign Affairs in September 1989, that we were witnessing the end of history. Such a view was being put forward as the governments of the various communist countries were being challenged not only in Eastern Europe but also in East Asia. His belief was that the view of the individual as enshrined within the ideal of the liberal democratic capitalist system had been victorious over the communal beliefs which were thought to inspire the communist system. The article argued for the end of history on the basis that after some centuries of dispute both armed and intellectual, that the world is uniformly evolving towards a system of liberal capitalist democracy. That such a belief may exist within some of the ruling circles of the United States is clear evidence that the actions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and East Asia have forced a reformulation of the beliefs which have sustained some generations of Eastern and Western policy makers and strategists. This article aims to examine changes that have occurred throughout Eastern Europe up to 1989.