Tag Archives: international relations

The End of the End of History

Back in 1992 Francis Fukuyama wrote a highly influential but seriously flawed book; “The End of History and the Last Man”. The general idea was that after the fall of the Berlin Wall the great ideological conflict between liberal democracy and communism had been settled. Liberal democracy had won, was spreading rapidly around the world and in due course every country would become a one. Good would triumph over evil.

The end of history meant the end of ideological conflict. Democracy would continue but the disagreements would be relatively minor. Ironically this view was similar to the Marxist belief in historical …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 5 Comments

Trump and Johnson on the world stage. What could possibly go wrong?

Sometimes I feel like I just want to get a big, soft cushion with Obama’s face on it to hide behind every time the news comes on after 20th January next year.

The US electorate has put a Twitter troll in charge. You would think that the person in the most powerful job in the world would have better things to do than take to social media to respond to every tiny criticism of him. The other day, for example, he said this of his call with Taiwan’s leader:

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Andy Daer
    Alex reminds us of the historical reasons why British prime ministers need to take responsibility for the awful consequences of our failures during the Mandate ...
  • Margot Wilson
    So refreshing to see that history recognised. 'Absent from the wider public consciousness' is certainly the case....
  • Alex Macfie
    I don't understand why Ed decided to jump on the banknote bandwagon, when the overlap between the people who are bothered about that sort of thing and those who...
  • Dennis Delice
    I love this parallel you've made; I couldn't help but think the same. Rather than responding to shots being taken in a defensive mentality, we are are strugglin...
  • paul barker
    There is one obvious trend that looks unstoppable, The Decline of Reform. That is unalloyed Good News but it does have the side effects of A Conservative Recove...