IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD (AS WE KNOW IT...) :

The Anti-U.S. Tide Turns (Michael Kelly, July 31, 2002, washingtonpost.com)

The conventional (post-Sept. 11) view holds that we live in a formerly bipolar world increasingly driven, and riven, by passions of faith and tribe, in which the United States may expect to be Enemy No. 1 for the foreseeable future. Batten down everything and get ready for a long, painful, bloody haul.

There is some obvious truth in this. The old order is gone; the passions of tribalism and nationalism are resurgent; the United States has many enemies, including among its putative friends.

But what if all of this does not represent something near the beginning of a long run of troubles but the chance (at least) for the beginning of a long run of relative peace? What if the market for violence against the United States is not rising but actually bottoming out?

The most obvious and powerful reason why this should be so is that the implosion of the Soviet empire was not, overall, an impetus for destabilization but rather for stabilization.

Many people wished to see the events of September 11th as a definitive refutation of Francis Fukuyama's End of History thesis, and they may eventually be proven right, but the instability of virtually ever Middle Eastern nation sure makes it seem doubtful that Islam is a serious challenger to liberal democratic capitalism. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 31, 2002 10:29 AM