Power and Politics in Today's World 🌏

Introduction

• Welcome and overview of the DeVane Lectures.
• Unique setup: Regular Yale course for credit and open to the public.
• Focus: Power and politics in the last 30 years (since 1989).

The Stability Post-WWII

• Post-WWII era (40 years): Relative stability and prosperity in advanced capitalist democracies.
• Marshall Plan: Helped Europe rebuild.
• Political stability due to demographic reasons.
• The Cold War's influence: Proxy wars like Vietnam, but overall stability in Western democracies.

Tumultuous Periods Since 1989

• Time seems to have 'sped up' with incredible changes in three decades.
• Different generational experiences with the last three decades.

1989 in Berlin

• Fall of the Berlin Wall: Symbolic tearing down, celebration, end of the division of Berlin.
• Interviews: Former Chancellor Billy Braun recalls the sense of joy and reunification.
• Soviet Union losing its grip on Eastern Europe by 1989.

Rise of Democracy After 1989

• Massive resistance movements in Eastern Europe.
• Democratic transitions in Germany, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Israel-Palestine.
• Francis Fukuyama's