A New Globalism

1989 to the Present

After decades of superpower rivalry, the cold war came to a halt in the 1990s when the Soviet Empire disintegrated, ushering in a new age of global challenges and opportunities. New countries emerged from the Soviet shadow to declare their independence, which radically changed the political map of eastern Europe. However, the transition from one-party rule to democracy was fraught with difficulties. The first document shows the brutal consequences of the end of communism for people living in the former Yugoslavia while the second document, a political cartoon, underscores the challenges inherent in efforts to redefine Europe’s role in a post–cold war era. The third document reveals that, as European governments currently move beyond the nation-state, so too do the problems they seek to address. The fourth and fifth documents spotlight political and economic changes in Africa and Asia as novel forces emerged to rival those of the West and its imperial past. With the boundaries between peoples and cultures becoming more fluid and diverse, the final document warns that future conflicts may arise from using rigid frameworks to define civilizations in the global age.