The "End" of History?

The United States and Soviet Union were in the midst of the Cold War, and general policies and attitudes of people and countries around the world largely centered around the conflict. On both the capitalist and communist sides, their ideals were abandoned numerous times in order to gain an upper-hand against the other. At the time, only two outcomes seemed likely: an eternal stalemate between two equal and opposing forces, or the obliteration of all life on Earth, thousands of times over. Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed general secretary of the U.S.S.R in 1985. Not long after, it all collapsed. Gorbachev liberalized the Soviet Union with his perestroika and glasnost policies, in an effort to rejuvenate Soviet politics and the economy. However, in 1989, the Warszawa Pact dissolved when its Eastern European members abandoned bureaucracy and communism in favor of democracy and capitalism. Only two years later, the Soviet Union itself shattered into several knew republics in Europe and Asia, including the Russian Federation.


After that we reached today’s post-Cold War world. However, history didn’t end. Much of American foreign policy has been focused on anti-terrorism, notably in the Middle East. This region was centralized under the Ottoman Empire for centuries, until the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne was signed between the Triple Entente and the new Republic of Turkey. The rest of the Middle East was put under “protectorate status” by France and The United Kingdom until after World War II. The empires and superpower status of both collapsed and the nationalist uprising used to bring the Ottomans down now targeted the British and French. New countries were formed, ranging from Westernized democracies to kingdoms. The Red Army tried to invade Afghanistan in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but the Mujahadeen, with fighters from all over the Muslim world, used the terrain to fend off against the atheist threat. These fighters broke up into various groups, including al-Qaeda, the Taliban, I.S.I.S., and Boko Haram. Many of these harbor anti-Western (and anti-American) values as a response to imperialism, capitalism and communism, ideally favoring the teachings of Islam to be the foundation of their society. This is known as 'islamism'.

There are plenty of other issues we as humans have had to deal with since 1991, and plenty of wonderful and generally significant events. Our effects on the environment are still an ongoing ordeal (for some reason), with climate change, pollution, and species extinction all pressing problems. Recent conflict and strife, due to natural disaster or the past centuries of inequality has created immigration crisis from the developing world (Hispanic-Latino-America, Africa, the Middle East) to the developed world (the United States, Canada, and Europe). Other reactions to the Soviet collapse, notably in Russia, China, and North Korea show cloudy futures. Technology continues its exponential advancement, with society struggling to keep up. This has led to the polarization of society, and the resurgence of far-right hate groups inspired by those of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

"The World is 'Flat'" in the Age of Globalization

As he describes in The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman refers to the decreasing steepness of upward social mobility and access to a longer, healthier, wealthier (not just financially, but a life of more in general) life. Despite the deceptive title, Friedman describes “flatness”* as, “how more people can plug, play, compete, connect, and collaborate with more equal power than ever before”. He attributes this largely to technology, which has advanced exponentially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.