I.  The End of the 45 Years War (aka the Cold War)

• Western civilization came to a moment of sweeping reassessment in 1989 when the Cold War ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of its domination of eastern European nations
• Almost immediately, the question arose, What next?
• The immediate response of American policy makers was to assert that the United States was the only remaining superpower and, almost as often, that the United States was the world's indispensable superpower
• Shortly after the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama published an essay (and later a book) with the theme, "The end of history"
• His argument holds that 1989 proved conclusively that the West had developed the template for the rest of the world to follow, namely market economies and democratic governments
• For Fukuyama, the struggle of history and the struggle to define the pattern for global organization had been answered in favor of the model whose development we have traced as part of this course
• Some analysts of his claims about super powers or the end of history argue that they are simply self-congratulatory chatter of people who are still mired in old patterns of thought and truly do not know what is next
• Other people argue that the outline of the future can be seen in the issues and conflicts of the last several decades
• These discussions, often based on emotions rather than evidence, reveal more about the speaker than they do about the recent past and imminent future
• According to some of these perspectives, the future will not be pretty
• The dynamics of the Cold War held many regional and ethnic rivalries in check
• Competition between the Soviet Union and the United States meant that many small countries could receive foreign aid and other assistance to keep their economies stable
• The end of the Cold War has meant an end to these "checks" on local conflicts
• Skyrocketing energy costs for petroleum and electricity suggest that there will be numerous conflicts in the future over access to the energy needed to fuel a modern economy
• Largely overlooked is the developing tension over the scarcity of fresh water for daily living
• Security analysts suggest that although there will be no global or world wars in the future, espionage and terrorism may make some folks nostalgic for the known dynamics of Cold War hostilities
• The dissolution of a bipolar world (US v. USSR) has opened a space for nations to claim leadership or hegemony in different regions of the world
• For some, this prospect raises the fear that world government cannot be far behind; at the same time, others suggest that a coordinated response to the world's problems would be vastly superior to random responses that are the product of national goals and electoral whims
• The discussions often extend to the future of "western civilization" itself
• Will the concept of "western civilization" retain meaning in the twenty-first century?
• While history cannot predict the future, many believe that past actions are one of the best predictors of future actions
• Perhaps the best way to start understanding the recent past is to look at some concepts and the trends they try to describe
• Many of the current debates and protests concern "globalization," the idea that the world is becoming more and more organized into a single entity, planet Earth
• While this may seem vague or obvious or both, photographs of Earth from the moon have underscored the validity of the idea that all humans inhabit the same space and must learn to deal with this reality
• What are the trends that underlie the move to globalization?
• Communication and transportation are at the heart of the transition
• Airplanes and cargo ships move people and equipment relatively cheaply around the world
• Satellites transform television and telephones into methods of global communication
• Computer-based communication such as the Internet, make it possible to take courses without ever going to a central meeting place to meet directly with your teachers or fellow students
• While many people regard these developments as the foundation for a lifestyle based on convenience, these developments have also created a global transportation and communication network.
• Some global trends are economic
• While some commentators act as if the realization of a global economy is a recent development, we have actually had elements of a global economy at least since the time of Columbus

        In addition, the relationships within the global economy are becoming more equal as different regions of the world
        find that they possess important raw materials that give them leverage in world markets to enhance their own
        economies. In earlier eras, Western countries could use political and economic power to help ensure that these
        economically strategic goods were available to the West at low prices. The power of the Organization of
        Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is one example of this trend. Yet another economic trend reflects the
        success of Western culture and the impact of that success. Whereas corporations were once grounded in
        particular countries, that is no longer the case. Americans could once identify corporations such as General
        Motors, McDonalds, or Coke as "American." Now, although that habit may persist, we have to realize that over 50
        percent of the profits of that quintessential American company, McDonald's, now makes over half of its profit from
        outside the United States. Obviously corporations have become multinational entities that are no longer controlled
        by or perhaps even primarily loyal to the nation where they began operation. Although these trends may create
        great opportunities, they represent a reshuffling of a once-familiar world into one where the nations of the West
        have no special place or power.

        World cultures are also changing. On the one hand, aspects of Western culture-such as rock music-have now
        reached around the world. Conversely, the West and the world have gained the ability to learn more about and to
        communicate directly with people from other cultures. Now people can simultaneously feel liberated from the
        confines of their own cultural environments even as they fear that their own familiar cultures will be destroyed by the
        inundation of new ideas and practices from around the world. In the United States, the desire to pass "English
        only" laws reflects the fear of globalization, while the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a Chinese film
        that was nominated for an Academy award for "Picture of the Year" in 2000, is one example of the ability to learn
        more about other cultures.

        Finally, the absence of the Cold War means that there is no longer a powerful global dynamic that creates
        pressure on small countries to conform to the expectations of world powers to behave in certain ways. For
        example, the end of the Cold War is a direct, contributing factor to the unleashing of violence in the former
        Yugoslavia.

        Taken together, the trends captured under the heading of "globalization" suggest that the world has entered a new
        phase of history even as it has, coincidentally, entered a new millennium. This module provides an overview of
        some of the issues. The meaning of these events will be clearer to your grandchildren than they are to you at this
        moment. But that does not mean that the study of this era will not provide some basic understandings of the
        post-Cold War world and the dynamics that shape it