"The Return" of Ideology and Nation State

[Arthum]

The german newsmag "Der Spiegel" online published an interview with Robert Kagan -who has been widely identified as the lead thinker of the so-called neo-cons- about his new book "The Return of History and the End of Dreams".

He argues, that despite the end of the Soviet Union and the international communication via the internet and all the other techological advancements we still ,or depending on one's perspective ,again live in a time in which nation states and ideologies (in his oppinion these would be mostly democracy vs authoritarianism) compete with each other.

According to him the importance of trans-,sub- and supernational actors (such as the EU,UNO etc.) on the international stage has been largely exaggerated compared to the importance of nation states, especially superpowers such as China and Russia.

On the other hand however,he is promoting the idea of new international institutions such as a "Union of democracies", which unlike NATO and EU -that would largely qualify as such- transcend the the transatlantic area and include states such as India and Japan and not the least as a reaction to the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Your thoughts ?(If there'll be an english version of the interview available I'll post it asap,as for now,here's the link to the german version)

[Viking Prince]

This is in English and I think is probably better the the interview:

Hoover Institue - Kagan - Aug/Sept 2007

Hope it helps.

[Arthum]

Yes, it's definitely much more elaborate than the interview and of course my summary of it, thank you.

[Pickle_mole]

a union of democracies would probably be a hell of a lot better then the UN. In order to join you have to be a full fledged democracy would mean Islamic Theocracys being on the friggen human rights council couldnt happen.