The Post-Cold War World
History 104 / April 26, 2013

I. Responses to the fall of communism
         A. The European Union "deepens" and "widens"
         B. Francis Fukuyama and the "end of history"
II. The stubborn persistence of nation-states in Europe
         A. Czecho-Slovak separation
         B. The Yugoslav civil wars
                  1. Milosevic seeks a "Greater Serbia"
                  2. Croatia and Serbia at war (1991-92)
                  3. "Ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia (1992-95)
                  4. The Kosovo crisis (1998-99)
         C. Post-Soviet social ills
         D. Strains in the common European currency
III. After modernism: the post-modern moment
         A. Key post-modern thinkers
                  1. Derrida and deconstruction
                  2. Foucault: social discipline as pathology
         B. Casual post-modern habits of mind
                  1. Suspicion of "master narratives"
                  2. Preference for diversity
         C. Post-modernism under strain
                  1. Culture wars in the Netherlands
                  2. The world today: too serious for post-modernism?
III. Is there still a "West"?
         A. Globalization – multiple definitions
                  1. The shrinking planet
                  2. Culture purveyed on a global scale
                  3. Free flow of capital on a global scale
         B. Obstacles to the universality of Western values
                  1. American exceptionalism
                  2. Poor government and cronyism in the Third World
                  3. Anti-Western extremism