I disagree. Even at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall - and - TopicsExpress



          

I disagree. Even at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall - and even more so after the vanishing of Soviet Russia - historians and political scientists were predicting that the new multi-polar world would be far messier than the old, cold-war, bi-polar strategic alignment. Those predictions were accurate. That the western democracies missed a chance to improve world stability by midwifing the rise of democratic values in the east is, by now, a truism. Arguing that the western age is over has been stated too many times to be given credence. That the west must continue reaching out for friends throughout the world, and politically engage even those societies whose political systems are antithetical to our values is a far more solid proposition. As for any perceived decline in Western economic and cultural power in relation to the burgeoning economies of China and elsewhere; those societies are still, by any measure, trying to catch up to the west. And their target continues to recede. The hopeful signs of increased small commerce in Africa and the stronger ties between western and eastern Europe are hopeful. The age of triumph is not over. It never existed. The age of increased liberty signaled by the fall of the wall is still gaining strength.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 02:41:11 +0000

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