The 1989-to-2001 decade was at least as brutal and nasty as the era that preceded it and in any case behind the blahblah-screen it too was "unipolar" solely in name, i.e. in the sense that the temporarily-wingclipped chose to bide their time, quietly prepare their comeback .. main feature being that the many-poor got duly-poorer while the few-rich got duly-snottier and the hatreds rose.  

Can't agree.  No world wars.  No threat of Nuclear Armageddons.  No major Vietnam scale prolonged regional wars - the Iran-Iraq war was probably the worst but was relatively short. End of Apartheid.  Improvements in human rights in lots of Latin American countries.  Unprecedented growth in world economy. End of Iron curtain and enlargement of EU. Lots of local despots and wars and famines of course - buts that's par for the course in any era in history - the background noise if you like.  Sure, the rich got richer.  What's new?  

And if it was bipolar, who was holding up the other pole?  Russia - broken. Arguably even the Soviet Union was never truly competitive with the US in anything but large nuclear warheads.  The EU - give me a break.  China - their economy - at that time - was smaller than a large European state.  There was NO COMPETITION to the US at strategic, military, economic and political terms.

This is not nostalgia - its a hard headed analysis.  Every generation thinks that their problems are the worst but there was a period after the Cold War when many of the most intractable problems in world politics - and even some in terms of economic development were being resolved.  There used to be mega famines in India and China.  Eastern Europe was severely underdeveloped.  There were even some hopeful signs in Palestine Israel.  And of course Saddam invaded Kuwait - a matter that would not have been of even passing interest to the West had there not been a lot of Oil and business interests involved.

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

bin lurkin' here?


The power of knowledge is in mortal combat with the knowledge of power. It really is that simple... That's the Edenic apple we are all munching on.