lujie-

Lin 1

Lin 4

Conclusion(page 1031)

The collapse of communism in the Soviet satellites surprised the world, for U.S.-bloc analysts had reported throughout the 1980s that the Soviet empire was in dangerously robust health. Yet no one should have been unaware of dissent or economic discontent. Since the 1960s, rebellious youth, ethnic and racial minorities, and women had all been condemning conditions across the West, along with criticizing the threat posed by the cold war. By the early 1980s, wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, protests against scarcity in the Soviet bloc, the power of oil-producing states, and the growing political force of Islam had cost the superpowers their resources and reputations. Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States tried to put their postindustrial and cold war houses in order. Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union — aimed at political and economic improvements — brought on collapse.

Glasnost and perestroika were supposed to yield high levels of prosperity and moral rejuvenation. Across the West, including the USSR, an unprecedented set of technological developments had transformed businesses, space exploration, and the functioning of government. Technological advances also had an enormous impact on everyday life. Work changed as society reached a stage called postindustrial, in which the service sector predominated. New patterns of family life, new relationships among the generations, and revised standards for sexual behavior also characterized these years. In the United States and western Europe, the benefits of postindustrialization reached a large percentage of ordinary people, with many excluded however. The attainment of a high-tech society demanded levels of coordination and cooperation unattainable in the Soviet bloc.

Many complained, nonetheless, about the dramatic changes resulting from postindustrial development. The protesters of the late 1960s addressed postindustrial society’s concentrations of bureaucratic and industrial power (often enabled by technology), racial and gender inequality, and environmental degradation. In the Soviet sphere, protests were continuous but little heeded until the collapse of Soviet domination of eastern Europe in 1989. Soon communism would be overturned in the USSR itself. However, an era of painful adjustment opened for hundreds of millions of people across the region. Amid this rapid change was the growing awareness — via technology’s instantaneous coverage of events across the globe — that the world’s peoples were more tightly connected than ever before.

Important Events

1963 Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique

1966 Willy Brandt becomes West German foreign minister and develops Ostpolitik

1967 First successful human heart transplant

1968 Revolution in Czechoslovakia; student uprisings throughout Europe and the United States

1969 U.S. astronauts walk on the moon’s surface

1972 SALT I between the United States and Soviet Union

1973 End of Vietnam War; OPEC raises price of oil and imposes oil embargo on the West

1973–1976 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes The Gulag Archipelago

1978 The first test-tube baby is born in England

1978–1979 Islamic revolution in Iran; hostages are taken at U.S. embassy in Teheran

1980 Solidarity organizes resistance to Polish communism; British prime minister Margaret Thatcher begins downsizing the welfare state

1981 Ronald Reagan becomes U.S. president

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet premier

1986 Explosion at Chernobyl nuclear plant; Spain joins the Common Market

1989 Chinese students revolt in Tiananmen Square; Communist governments are ousted in eastern Europe; Berlin Wall is demolished

Suggested References

The history-changing events of the 1960s to 1989 ran the gamut from life-changing technology to dramatic political upheavals — all of them chronicled in the following innovative books. The story of television in post-uprising Czechoslovakia illustrates that even dictatorships used this new technology to “soften” their control. Biographies for this period are especially informative.

*Primary source.

· Bolton, Jonathan. Worlds of Dissent: Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism. 2012.

· Bren, Paulina. The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism after the 1968 Prague Spring. 2010.

· Carter, David. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Rights Movement. 2011.

· Chaplin, Tamara. Turning On the Mind: French Philosophers on Television. 2007.

· *Freedman, Estelle B. The Essential Feminist Reader. 2007.

· Gildea, Robert, James Mar, and Anette Warring, eds. Europe’s 1968: Voices of Revolt. 2013.

· Green Parties Worldwide: http://www.greens.org

· Harvey, Brian. Russian Planetary Exploration: History, Development, Legacy, Prospects. 2007.

· Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. 2013.

· Jobs, Richard Ivan. Backpack Ambassadors: How Youth Travel Integrated Europe. 2017.

· Kenney, Padraic. Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989. 2002.

· Kotkin, Steven. Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment. 2010.

· Maher, Neil M. Apollo in the Age of Aquarius. 2017.

· McLaren, Angus. Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies. 2012.

· Peniel, E. Joseph. Stokely: A Life. 2014.

· Shepard, Todd. Sex, France, and Arab Men, 1962–1979. 2017.

· Taubman, William. Gorbachev: His Life and Times. 2017.

· Veldman, Meredith. Margaret Thatcher: Shaping the New Conservatism. 2015.

1. Prague Spring

Josef Smrkovský, What Lies Ahead (February 9, 1968)

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union created a buffer of satellite states in eastern Europe, including Czechoslovakia. By 1957, when the presidency there passed to Antonín Novotný (1904–1975), a politician committed to communist unity with the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia had become an authoritarian state with collectivized property and suppressed civil liberties. However, a group led by Josef Smrkovský (1911–1974) and Alexander Dubček (1921–1992), calling for more political and social openness, secretly gathered strength in the highest ranks of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. In January 1968, Dubček succeeded Novotný as the head of the party, and he initiated a broad range of reforms, including free speech, an independent press, the right to assemble, and religious freedom. The following newspaper article excerpt, written by Smrkovský a month after Dubček gained power, became the new government’s most important manifesto. In it, Smrkovský emphasized a break with the “old” party while calling for all the people of Czechoslovakia to build a “new,” liberal Communist Party. The reforms were not to last. In August 1968, Soviet dominance returned after Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, killed more than one hundred people, and arrested Dubček and his allies.

On the Conclusions of the January Plenum of the CPCz CC1

The questions that the Central Committee of the party considered and resolved in December and January have set the entire party in motion, and the public at large has been paying great attention to them. This is so even though we failed to ensure the prompt and sufficient release of information. We must put this right, and that is precisely what we are doing, since there must be no discrepancy between our statements of Leninist principles and democratic traditions, on the one hand, and our future practical activities, on the other.

We can already say that in general the last Central Committee session has met with a favorable response in politically active sections of society. As more information has become available, discussions have been gaining momentum, and this in turn has generated greater enthusiasm for political activity. Yet even sincere persons who in the past have often been disappointed still show signs of skepticism. Old practices are still embedded in the activities of many of our organs and in the minds of people working in them. This creates doubts and insecurity. People are demanding guarantees.…

A Common Republic

Still, the common interest in truly maintaining the republic’s internal unity demands that we rely on proven traditions, stemming from the joint anti-fascist liberation struggle, and that we come to grips with the issue of our relations in the interest of a modern socialist community.… For the first time in the history of the CPCz, a Slovak communist has been placed at the helm of the party. Cde. Dubcek has become first secretary as an honest and experienced communist. At the CPCz CC session it was not at all a question of a “power seizure by the Slovaks” as we sometimes hear because of a lack of information in Czech circles.

Confidence in the Intelligentsia

By the same token, no one has threatened 

From Jaromir Navrátil, ed., The Prague Spring 1968: A National Security Archive Documents Reader (New York: Central European Press, 1998), 45–50.

3. Children Fleeing from a Napalm Attack in South Vietnam

Nick Ut, Photograph (June 8, 1972), and Vanity Fair Interview (2015)

Although the cold war dominated the European landscape during the 1950s and 1960s, it also loomed large in Asia. Responding to years of resistance against French colonial rule led by the founder of the Indochinese Communist Party, Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969), the Geneva Convention divided Vietnam into North and South in 1954. Ho Chi Minh and his followers were ordered to retreat to the North. U.S. leaders feared that the communist presence there would spread elsewhere in the region, and gradually their commitment to a non-Communist South Vietnam escalated to all-out war. By 1966, the United States had more than half a million soldiers in South Vietnam. One of the most compelling images of the Vietnam War is that of children running down a dusty road, screaming in terror and pain after a napalm attack on their village. The photograph was taken by Nick Ut, a native Vietnamese man who had started his career in 1966 working in the Associated Press’s darkroom in Saigon and moved up the ranks to staff photographer. More than forty years later, Nick Ut shared his recollections of what proved to be a decisive moment in the conflict. Published on the front page of newspapers around the world, his photograph helped to further undermine public support for the war by exposing its violent consequences. Although South Vietnamese aircraft executed the attack, it had been ordered by the U.S. Army — a fact that shocked much of the American public. In the years following its publication, the North Vietnamese government used the photograph as evidence of American atrocities.

I left Saigon around seven A.M. by car and arrived outside of Trang Bang around 7:30 A.M. During the war, I traveled up and down Highway 1 all the time. There were no traffic lights on the highway back then. It was a very dangerous drive. The Viet Cong were hiding everywhere. After the Americans and South Vietnamese military shot the Viet Cong, they would leave dead bodies by the side of the road as a warning to not join or assist the Vietcong. Some Viet Cong were very young — 15 years old.

June 8, 1972, was the second day of heavy fighting around Trang Bang. As I drove up there, I saw thousands of refugees coming down the road. I was an Associated Press photographer and there were many other media there that day — ABC News, CBS, BBC. More than 10 cameramen were there.

In the morning, there was very heavy fighting and bombing in the village, so some of the media left before they dropped the napalm because they thought they had gotten enough material. They dropped the napalm around 12:30 P.M.

When I first saw the napalm explosion, I didn’t think there were any civilians in the village. Four napalm bombs were dropped. In the previous two days, thousands of refugees had already fled the village. Then I started to see people come out of the fireball and smoke. I picked up my Nikon camera … and started shooting. As they got closer I switched to my Leica. First there was a grandmother carrying a baby who died in front of my camera. Then I saw through the viewfinder of my Leica, the naked girl running. I thought, “Oh my God. What happened? The girl has no clothes.” I kept shooting with my Leica.…

I took almost a roll of Tri-x film of her then I saw her skin coming off and I stopped taking pictures. I didn’t want her to die. I wanted to help her. I put my cameras down on the road. We poured water over this young girl. Her name was Kim Phuc. She kept yelling “nóng quá” (Too hot). We were all in shock.

Her uncle [asked if I would take all the children to the hospital]. I knew she would die soon if I didn’t help. I immediately said, “Yes.” … When we arrived at the hospital in Cu Chi, nobody wanted to help her because there were so many wounded soldiers and civilians already there. The local hospital was too small. They asked me, “Can you take all the children to the hospital in Saigon?” I said, “No. She’s going to die any minute right here.” I showed them my AP media pass and said, “If one of them dies you’ll be in trouble.” Then they brought Kim Phuc inside first because she was so badly wounded. Then I went back to develop my film at the AP office in Saigon.

Me and the best darkroom person in Southeast Asia, Ishizaki Jackson, who was also an 

From Mark Edwards Harris, “Photographer Who Took Iconic Vietnam Photo Looks Back, 40 Years after the War Ended,” Vanity Fair, April 3, 2015. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/04/vietnam-war-napalm-girl-photo-today.

4. The Rising Power of OPEC

U.S. Embassy, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Ban on Oil Shipments to the United States (October 23, 1973)

In a show of pan-Arabian unity and nationalism, military forces from Egypt and Syria invaded Israel on October 6, 1973. The United States quickly offered extensive financial aid to Israel. As punishment for U.S. support of Israel, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) banned its members from exporting oil to the United States and raised the price of oil for the U.S. allies in western Europe. Overnight, the price of a barrel rose from $3 to $5.11, and by January 1974, it had risen to $11.65, resulting in widespread fuel shortages across the West. Infused with Arab nationalism, the actions of OPEC shocked citizens in Europe and the United States, who were not accustomed to being at the mercy of nations they once dominated. In this confidential cable, which was declassified only in September 2003, an unidentified writer from the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia offers an inside view of the Saudis’ strategy in their decision to participate in the OPEC ban on exporting oil to the United States.

23 OCTOBER 1973

FROM: AMERICAN EMBASSY IN SAUDI ARABIA

TO: THE SECRETARY OF STATE, WASHINGTON D.C.

SUBJECT: SAUDI BAN ON OIL SHIPMENTS TO U.S.

SUMMARY: SAUDI DECISION TO CUT OFF OIL SHIPMENTS TO U.S. ATTRIBUTABLE TO KING’S OWN DECISION: KING ANGRY AT ANNOUNCEMENT OF LARGE U.S. MILITARY GRANT PROGRAMS TO ISRAEL AND PROBABLY FELT THAT ANY LESSER RESPONSE WOULD LEAVE SAUDI ARABIA UNCOMFORTABLY ISOLATED IN ARAB WORLD. U.S. MISSION CONTACTS WITH HIGH-LEVEL SAG [the Government of Saudi Arabia] OFFICIALS, HOWEVER, INDICATE SAG WISHES TO MINIMIZE DAMAGE THAT PRESENT CRISIS MAY DO TO U.S.-SAG RELATIONS. JOINT U.S.-USSR RESOLUTION IN SECURITY COUNCIL, POTENTIALLY A RADICALLY POSITIVE STEP, BUT IF IT DOES NOT SUCCEED, SAG MAY FEEL COMPELLED TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON U.S. INTERESTS IN MILITARY, COMMERCIAL, ENERGY AND FINANCIAL AREAS. EMBASSY IS STRESSING WITH SAG NEED THAT CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION REMAIN OPEN, AND THAT EACH SIDE GIVE [each] OTHER MAXIMUM ADVANCE NOTICE OF ANY MEASURES IT IS CONTEMPLATING. END SUMMARY.

1. THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT THAT SAG DECISION TO BAN PETROLEUM EXPORTS TO U.S. STEMMED FROM KING FAISAL HIMSELF. DISCUSSION BETWEEN HIGH-RANKING SAG OFFICIALS AND AMBASSADOR IN 24 HOURS PREVIOUS HAD NOT INDICATED SAG ON VERGE OF TAKING SUCH BIG STEP.

2. SOURCES IN ROYAL DIWAN OCT 21 HAVE CONFIRMED TO EMBASSY THAT DECISION [was] TAKEN BY KING, AND WAS PRINCIPALLY MOTIVATED BY U.S. PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE ISRAEL WITH 2.2 MILLION DOLLARS OF GRANT [money for] MILITARY AID. WAS TOLD BY CHIEF OF ROYAL DIWAN, AHMAD ABDUL WAHAB (A WELL-ADJUSTED PRO-AMERICAN FIGURE) THAT KING WAS AS FURIOUS AS HE HAD EVER SEEN HIM AND THAT HE TOOK PARTICULAR UMBRAGE AT WHAT HE CONSIDERED TO BE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REASSURING TONE OF VARIOUS COMMUNICATIONS HE HAD RECEIVED FROM USG [the United States Government] AND U.S. ANNOUNCEMENT OF “INCREDIBLE” AMOUNT OF AID TO GOI [the Government of Israel]. KING’S SUBSEQUENT CALL FOR JIHAD CAN ALSO BE ASCRIBED TO KING’S DISPLEASURE. KING’S MOOD EMPHATICALLY REFLECTED ALSO BY ABLE, NATIONALIST MINISTER HISHAM NAZER, HEAD OF CENTRAL PLANNING ORGANIZATION.

3. WE SHOULD NOT, HOWEVER, OVERSTRESS THE CAUSATIVE EFFECT OF PURE EMOTION IN KING’S DECISION TO CUT BACK OIL SHIPMENTS TO U.S. A NUMBER OF ARAB COUNTRIES HAD ALREADY TAKEN STEP OF BANNING SUCH SHIPMENTS, AND [Sheikh Zaki] YAMANI [the official in charge of Saudi oil policy in 1973] HAD INFORMED AMBASSADOR THAT OTHERS WOULD PROBABLY FOLLOW. AS IMPACT OF U.S. AID DECISION MADE ITSELF FELT IN ARAB WORLD, KING MAY HAVE FELT THAT SAG WOULD OCCUPY EXPOSED SALIENT IF IT — ALONE AMONG ARAB OIL PRODUCERS — CONTINUED TO PROVIDE OIL TO U.S.

4. EMBASSY CONTACTS ELSEWHERE IN SAG, MOREOVER, TEND TO CONFIRM OUR ASSESSMENT THAT SAG WISHES [to] MINIMIZE DAMAGE THAT PRESENT CRISIS COULD CAUSE TO U.S.-SAUDI RELATIONS.… DURING MEETING OCT 21 BETWEEN CHIEF OF U.S. MILITARY TRAINING MISSION (USMTM), GENERAL HILL, DEPUTY MUDA, AND KING’S BROTHER PRINCE TURKI, PRINCE STATED 

5. 6SAG ACTION COULD ALSO DELIVER A SETBACK TO IMPORTANT U.S. COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY SALES: SAG HAS GROWN TO BE ONE OF LARGEST MARKETS FOR AMERICAN PRODUCTS … WITH SALES RUNNING AT MORE THAN A THIRD OF A BILLION DOLLARS THIS YEAR. OUR MILITARY SALES PROGRAMS MOREOVER HAVE … IN THE PAST THREE YEARS EXCEEDED 500 MILLION DOLLARS, AND THERE ARE GOOD PROSPECTS FOR CASH SALES OF A SIMILAR ORDER TO BE CONCLUDED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO YEARS. WE SHOULD REMEMBER THAT EUROPE, PARTICULARLY FRENCH AND BRITISH SOURCES, ARE MORE THAN PREPARED TO PICK UP THE FALLOUT FROM THE AMERICAN DILEMMA IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT.

6. IN THE MEANTIME, AMBASSADOR HAS PASSED WORD TO CHIEF OF ROYAL DIWAN THAT IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN HIM AND SAG TO REMAIN OPEN AT ALL TIMES.…

7. FINALLY, WITH REGARD TO SAUDI ACTIONS AGAINST U.S. OIL AND OTHER INTERESTS, WE SHOULD AVOID ACRIMONIOUS COMMENTS, SINCE THESE TEND TO KEEP AN UNHELPFUL DIALOGUE GOING.

From U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, Cable 4663 to U.S. State Department, “Saudi Ban on Oil Shipments to U.S.,” October 23, 1973 (Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive).

5. Facing Terrorism

Jacques Chirac, New French Antiterrorist Laws (September 14, 1986)

Along with the energy crisis, the rise of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s posed a serious challenge to Western governments. Although there is disagreement as to the precise definition of “terrorism,” at the most basic level it involves the premeditated use of violence for political ends. Civilian populations have often borne the brunt of terrorist attacks, as was brutally apparent in France in September 1986. In the span of eight days, a number of bombs exploded in Paris stores, restaurants, and public buildings, killing at least ten people and wounding scores more. The principal suspects were members of a group with Syrian links, the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (FARL), whose leader was imprisoned in France. It appears that the group hoped the bombings would secure his release. In response to the violence, French prime minister Jacques Chirac implemented a series of antiterrorism measures that he presented to the French people on September 14 in a televised statement, excerpted here.

Since our election and the formation of this government we have been working on a series of bills that are now ready. The laws on security and particularly on terrorism that were voted on during the last session were promulgated a few days ago according to the democratic legislative process for passing laws. We will implement their provisions immediately and with the greatest authority. What do these laws provide for? First of all, improvement of prevention by extension of police custody, general identity checks, and searches on premises.

On the question of identity checks I ask every one of our citizens to understand that, in the current situation, the constraint that these controls represent should be accepted with, so to speak, good humor. It is necessary for everyone’s security.

These laws also centralize investigations and legal proceedings in Paris, in the hands of specialists, in order to be more effective in the prosecution of those who are implicated of direct or indirect involvement in terrorist acts.

The second set of decisions we have taken will naturally aggravate a certain number of our foreign friends visiting France. We have in effect decided to require a mandatory visa for all foreigners entering France, regardless of their origin, with the exception, of course, of the European Community and Switzerland.

But for all others, no matter what their origin, the North or the South, Asia or Africa, from tomorrow on visas will be required, albeit with a few days’ delay, for technical reasons, before actual implementation begins. The visas will be issued by our consulates around the world and will enable us to prohibit entry into France to all sorts of people who appear at the borders and enter the territory with passports which, as everyone knows, are all too often irregularly issued, or are forgeries that we cannot verify.

I ask all our foreign friends to understand that, in the crisis situation in which we find ourselves, this measure is necessary. Unfortunately it is likely to provoke some problems when enforced, such as delays in airports or at points of entry into France, but these are inevitable incidents in the implementation of this type of measure.

My next point concerns checks and, where necessary, expulsion. Everyone knows that the police have an eye on a certain number of people whom they suspect, but cannot accuse, of belonging to what I would call the terrorist organizations’ sphere of influence. We have decided to strengthen considerably checks on and surveillance of all those active in the terrorist movements’ sphere of influence, hence the series of arrests which you have probably heard about in the last few days and which will result in expulsion — and which has in the last two days resulted in the expulsion of persons whose presence in France we consider a danger to the public order. That has begun, will continue and be carried out with the greatest determination and the greatest firmness.

Finally, there is the problem of security in public places. As you saw earlier, reports have just come in, and will perhaps be corrected since this occurred virtually as we were coming into the studio, of a dubious package apparently, I say apparently being discovered in the Renault Pub, a place where there are a lot of people, and being taken down into the basement, where it unfortunately exploded, wounding three policemen: that clearly illustrates the vulnerability of public places. They must have proper security. I am mayor of Paris, I see what happens in the close vicinity of my City Hall. Everyone who enters the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville [a large department store] with a package, even a small one, has to open it. I tell you that this has not caused the slightest problem nor created the slightest incident in the last three or four years. And this has made the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville a very safe place. Other stores, like the Galeries Lafayette and others as well, do the same thing. I want private places frequented by the public to enforce those security measures, which are a very considerable deterrent.

There you have a certain number of measures, those that can be announced. I tell you right away that there are others, but these others are the sole responsibility of the public authorities and, because of their nature, are not being publicized and I shall not answer questions or comment on them. However, they are also being taken in the context of this calm, firm fight against this veritable scourge of modern times that is terrorism.

In conclusion, I shall say that everyone must feel he or she has a part to play in these matters. Everyone’s safety is at stake. Terrorism is, by definition, blind and spares no one, not you, me or anyone.…

I would like everyone to be certain that the day, and it will inevitably come, there’s no doubt about that, when we catch a terrorist in the act, he will talk and those manipulating him must clearly realize that they will receive draconian retribution, that we shall be pitiless, regardless of the consequences. They must realize that.

From Bruce Maxwell, Terrorism: A Documentary History (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003), 85–87.

Conclusion

Postmodernist thinking has not eclipsed humane values in the global age. The urge to find practical solutions to the daunting problems of contemporary life — population explosion, scarce resources, pollution, global warming, ethnic hatred, North–South inequities, and terrorism — through the careful assessment of facts still guides public policy. Some of these global problems were briefly overshadowed by the collapse of the Soviet empire, which initially produced human misery, rising criminality, and the flight of population during the 1990s and into the 2000s. Reformers who sought improved conditions of life by bringing down Soviet and Yugoslav communism saw unexpected bloodshed and even genocide unfold. What appeared to be an economic boom resulting from globalization and the collapse of communism itself had disadvantages, as the sustained crisis from 2007 on cost jobs, harmed human well-being, and produced a violently racist and hate-filled politics.

Yet the years since 1989 have also seen great improvements. Glimmers of progress toward democracy appeared, even as gains at times appeared fragile. Human health gradually improved even as scientists sought to cure the victims of global pandemics and to prevent such ravages altogether. The global age ushered in by the Soviet collapse unexpectedly brought denationalization to many regions of the world, leading to weakening of borders and attempts at cooperation among former enemies. The expansion of the European Union and the tightening of relationships within it are the best example of this development even as they also dealt with challenges in the face of economic adversity and the rise of authoritarianism among its members.

Some consequences of increasing globalization are still being determined. The Internet and migration suggest that people’s empathy for one another grew worldwide. One commentator claimed that there was little bloodshed in the collapse of the Soviet empire because fax machines and television circulated images of events globally, muting the violence often associated with political revolution. At the same time, militants from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines, North Africa, Britain, France, Germany, and elsewhere unleashed terrorism on the world. Each incident was shocking, including the planned murder of seventeen French journalists, Jews doing grocery shopping, and police defending society in the winter of 2015, and the killings by “lone wolf” attackers in subsequent years. Nor did powerful countries hesitate to wage wars against Ukraine, Chechnya, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon — or against their own people, as in Myanmar and Syria. On a different level, even as globalization raised standards of living and education in many parts of the world, in other areas — such as poorer regions in Africa and Asia — people faced disease and the dramatic social and economic crises specifically associated with genocide in the global age. In contrast, the most hopeful developments in recent globalization were communication in the arts and in culture more generally and the cooperation that nations undertook with one another in the realms of health, economics, and politics. Social media via the World Wide Web offered people in families, localities, nations, and the world a new way of communicating, while simultaneously facilitating terrorism, the undermining of democratic institutions, and the rise of authoritarian politics in the West. Thus, both opportunities and challenges lie ahead for citizens of the West and of the world as they engage the Digital Age.

The challenge to the making of the West today involves the inventive human spirit. Over the past five hundred years, the West has benefited from its scientific and technological advances and perhaps never more than in our own times. Although communication and information technology have brought people closer to one another than ever before, the use of technology has made the period from 1900 to the present one of the bloodiest eras in human history — and one during which the use of technology has threatened, and still threatens, the future of our planet as a home for the human race. While technology has enhanced daily life, its potential for military mass murder, genocide, terrorism, and environmental deterioration pose great challenges to the West and to the world. The use of digital media to discredit democracy and promote violent causes, including the recruitment of ideologically motivated murderers, makes technology’s challenges even more significant. How will the human race adapt to the creativity unleashed by the Digital Age? How will the West and the world manage both the promises and the challenges of Digital Age technology to protect the human race and human values in the years ahead?

2. An End to Apartheid

The African National Congress, Introductory Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (August 19, 1996)

In 1995, Nelson Mandela, the first postapartheid president of South Africa, appointed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to help his country make the transition from an oppressive apartheid regime to a democratic multiracial state. The TRC was charged with establishing “as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes, and extent of gross violations of human rights” committed in South Africa between 1960 and 1994. The commission spent two and a half years evaluating more than 21,000 statements from apartheid victims and perpetrators and subpoenaed hundreds more to learn the full extent of the crimes that took place. The TRC’s charge was to investigate the crimes in a way that would promote national unity and reconciliation rather than continued bitterness and hatred. The TRC offered amnesty from prosecution for perpetrators who testified about past crimes and provided restitution to victims. In this excerpt, the African National Congress (ANC), a political organization that had lobbied against apartheid since 1912, introduces its statement to the TRC by outlining the need for national reconciliation and the protection of human rights.

Doc 29.2: African National Congress, Statement to Truth, Reconciliation Commission (Aug 19, 1996)

Doc 29.4: Commission to Europe Parliament: Road from Paris(2016), Reactions Paris Climate Agreement

Document 29.3: World Bank, World Development Indicators (2010)

Document 29.5: Paresh Nath, European Nationalism Cartoon (2017)

5. Nationalism and the EU

Paresh Nath, European Nationalism Cartoon (2017)

Even as the European Union (EU) flexed its muscles at the Paris climate talks, its power as a unifying force has been strained in recent years with the rise of far-right and nationalist parties in Europe. Established in the shadow of World War II, the EU embraces interconnectedness and cooperation as drivers of both economic prosperity and international security. By contrast, political parties such as the National Front in France and Party for Freedom in the Netherlands assert that national interests, often based on a specific ethnic identity, trump all else. The economic and social impacts of globalization, as well the consequences of austerity policies enacted following the 2008 recession, have helped to fuel such arguments. With jobs lost due to overseas competition and millions of refugees and migrants seeking a better life in Europe, many people believe that their national identities and economic well-being are under threat. Politicians have capitalized on such fears throughout Europe, leading to the election of right-wing populists to parliaments in Hungary, the Netherlands, and elsewhere as well as an unexpectedly successful referendum in Britain to exit the European Union in 2016. The political cartoon printed here was published in an international United Arab Emirates newspaper in 2017, and it vividly captures the uncertainty that lies ahead for the EU and, by extension, for Europe’s liberal democratic institutions.

Document 29.6: Tony Judt, “What Have We Learned, If Anything?” (2008)

From Tony Judt, “What Have We Learned, If Anything?” The New York Review of Books, May 1, 2008. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/05/01/what-have-we-learned-if-anything/.