The Return of History and the End of Dreams

Robert Kagan gives us a picture of the world today in all its complexity and its simplicity. This is a world where America is dominant but cannot dominate, where the struggle for power and prestige goes on as it always has. Power is at the service of ideas, but the key ideas are also ideas about power: democracy and autocracy. All this in a hundred pages, with style, energy and...

Robert Kagan gives us a picture of the world today in all its complexity and its simplicity. This is a world where America is dominant but cannot dominate, where the struggle for power and prestige goes on as it always has. Power is at the service of ideas, but the key ideas are also ideas about power: democracy and autocracy. All this in a hundred pages, with style, energy and panache.

—英国政坛大佬Robert Cooper的评价

美国新保守主义的代表人物，《天堂与实力》的作者。

卡根指出，福山浅薄地认为，意识形态冲突已经终结，自由民主获得了胜利，这只是一种错觉。如今天下重又回到了国家的目标和利益相互纠葛无比错综复杂的19世纪，而不是20世纪90年代。在这个世界里，无法依据简单的规则预言或控制国家的行为。美国虽然不再是唯一处于支配地位的大国，但从全球范围来看，仍然是最具影响力和实力的国家。在许多国家及其统治者都在同美国和欧洲争夺地位和优势的过程中，独裁制度就会成为有效甚至合理合法的政体。如果存在一条鲜明的分界线，那就是民主制度与独裁制度之间的分界线。当然，在运作外交政策时使用这一分界线就像以往一样困难。