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The Return of History and the End of Dreams
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1
EAN: 9780307269232
ISBN: 030726923X
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Studio: Knopf
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Editorial Review:Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. Nation-states remain as strong as ever, as do the old, explosive forces of ambitious nationalism. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. Communism is dead, but a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics. Finally, radical Islamists are waging a violent struggle against the modern secular cultures and powers that, in their view, have dominated, penetrated, and polluted their Islamic world. The grand expectation that after the Cold War the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong.For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Malignity of Multipolarity
This is a perceptive and far-sighted examination on the state of global politics as the decade approaches its end, in the form of an extended essay. A new axis of evil is rising in opposition to the West, one not guided by a shared ideology except in so far as hostility to the rule of law and democracy might be considered ideological. Kagan predicts that the future will see the return of nationalism, growing tensions and confrontation between the forces of democracy and autocracy. What matters is ... Read More
Rating:  - Has History Returned?
Yes, history has returned according to Kagan. This is an even handed, concise discussion of the geopolitical struggle today between the democratic world (the west etc) and the autocratic world (China, Russia, etc). I am not a fan of Kagan and the neocons, however this is a book that is well worth the read from any political persuasion. Authors would be well advised to indeed give us more of these concise, yet thoughtful books.
Rating: - American Power and Purpose
Kagan's Book represents an important addition to the academic literature on American grand strategy and the emerging contest between democracies and authoritarian states. What is most striking is how clearly Kagan illistrates that our present era has many parralells with past world orders. Whilst it may be startling to a generation reared on the end of history thesis, which Kagan plays off, this conflict would be readily apparent to statesman and political leaders in the 19th century. This sobering ... Read More
Rating:  - The return of the military-industrial complex
After reading the book/pamphlet, the military industrial complex must be preparing to walk laughing all the way to the back. They could not have written a better book to support their business.
First of all, take Russia. With a rapidly declining population and low life expectations due to perennial alcoholism and rising drug addiction, Russia will never be a serious threat. It is blessed with huge resources including the best agricultural land, but it does not have the population to take ... Read More
Rating: - Endgame for "war on terror" and now we have to look for the next Kaiser who will challenge the world peace!
I found the central argument of this book very convincing. Forget your fears about the terrible Islamic threat to the modern world and start looking to the old 19th century power games that now repeat themselves between great states. Al Qaeda shot its bolt after all and its war is already a thing of the past. Kagan argues that the world is not divided by religion or race as Samuel Huntingdon's "clash of civilizations" theory suggests and the modern trouble with Islam/West seems to vindicate. Rather he ... Read More
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