The Return of History and the End of Dreams

Post-Cold War, 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. 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 the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong. Kagan 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.
"A brief and wonderfully argued volume…that has a message for Americans of all political stripes. "
"Intensely interesting and lucid…Written with exemplary clarity and profound good sense, it reads like a
briefing paper for the next president of the United States, and as such
it is indispensable reading-not just for McCain or Obama but for
everyone interested in the uncertain and fragile near future of the
world."
"[A] stirring treatise on post-Cold War politics…Kagan's well-considered message will resonate with history buffs and
current-affairs junkies looking for the latest in neocon thought."
"Holter
Graham narrates with authority but without artifice or too much
gravitas, which would be all too easy. He varies his cadence to
emphasize points and to allow the listener to catch up with the
concepts."