A New World and Its Troubles

Bibliographic Data

ID4451772
AuthorsStanley Hoffmann (corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume69
Issue4
Pages115
Publication date1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20044500
OpenAlexW2559837314
LanguageEN
Citations received8

y Te are entering a new phase of history. It is assuredly not the of history,1 a silly notion based on a series of mistaken assumptions (that the death of communism means the definitive triumph of Western liberalism, the end of ideology, and the coming of a boring era of material con cerns and unheroic squabbles); it is a period in which the discrepancy between the formal organization of the world into states and the realities of power, which do not resemble those of any past international system, will create formidable con tradictions and difficulties. Miles Kahler indicates why even the shift from goals and tools to economic ones is not likely to lead to peace and quiet. First, there is a huge array of possible traditional quarrels, in a world where there is at least still one ideology of violent conflict?Islamic fundamentalism?and where the dis appearance or decay of secular ideologies leaves nationalism, over much of the planet, as the only glue of loyalty. The Arab-Israeli conflict, Kashmir and Cyprus are daily reminders of gloomy forms of permanence. Evidence of the declining utility of force for the superpowers and for other major actors, such as the nations of Western Europe and Japan, may not deter those for whom passion overruns cost-benefit analysis, and those for whom force seems the only alternative to despair, humiliation, or destruction. If one remembers that the increased economic capabilities of smaller states, alluded to by Joseph Nye in his latest book,2 allow them to buy or build formidable modern arsenals and to make themselves largely independent of arms shipments by fickle superpowers?and if one believes, as Robert W. Tucker and I do, that the latter, no longer chasing each other all over the world, may play less of

Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Russia and Soviet political economy

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