Soviet Collapse and the Unipolar Moment

the brief history of the multipolar world 1989-2008

There is one complex historical event that is essential to understand the history of the multipolar world over the last forty years. This event is so encrusted in rival myths and historical interpretations that we can barely see the trees for the overgrowth; let alone see the forest that surrounds us with darkness. Vines strangle the trees and mists obscure my vision. These mists come from my own memories of this event, which changed how I see the world and reoriented my generation to geopolitics. It remains the major historical event of my lifetime. That event is the collapse of the Soviet Union, following its initiation of the end of the Cold War.