The Return of History and the End of Dreams

Scholar and Washington Post columnist Kagan (author of Dangerous Nation, co-founder of neoconservative think-tank Project for the New American Century) delivers a brief but stirring treatise on post-Cold War politics, warning that the world's nations have again plunged into the dangers of geo-politics: ""the old competition between liberalism and autocracy"" is back. Writing with authority and clear-eyed passion, Kagan explains how the end of the Cold War (the fabled ""End of History"") failed to prime the international demand for democracy, as the democratic world had hoped, yielding instead emerging autocracies in Russia, China and elsewhere, as well as the increasingly dangerous and virulent ideology of militant Islam. In dense but thoughtful prose, Kagan scrutinizes the patterns of history, and predicts a grim political future: ""International order does not rest on ideas and institutions alone. It is shaped by configurations of power."" Kagan's well-considered message will resonate with history buffs and current-affairs junkies looking for the latest in neocon thought.