OK, after several days of absence, here I am again. The article I'm going to post is an old one. Exactly 14 years old. However, the subject of this article is still actual. Moreover, my country, the Region, and even broader have been living this article for about 25 years. Ever-since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. So, read it, and enjoy. It is very instructive. The guy who wrote this text is an important Pommy. The geopolitical adviser of one Anthony Charles Lynton "Tonny" Blair, an ex Prime minister of PommyLand and one Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, GCMG, the High European Commission Official.
Intro by LG
In 1989 the political systems of
three centuries came to an end in Europe: the balance-of-power and the imperial
urge. That year marked not just the end of the Cold War, but also, and more significantly,
the end of a state system in Europe which dated from the Thirty Years War. September
11 showed us one of the implications of the change.
To understand the present, we must
first understand the past, for the past is still with us. International order used
to be based either on hegemony or on balance. Hegemony came first. In the ancient
world, order meant empire. Those within the empire had order, culture and civilisation.
Outside it lay barbarians, chaos and disorder. The image of peace and order through
a single hegemonic power centre has remained strong ever since. Empires, however,
are ill-designed for promoting change. Holding the empire together - and it is the
essence of empires that they are diverse - usually requires an authoritarian political
style; innovation, especially in society and politics, would lead to instability.
Historically, empires have generally been static.