‘With the end of the Cold War,” wrote the political scientist Francis Fukuyama in 1992, “we need to rethink our deep-seated pessimism about the chances for democracy in the former communist world. Pessimists like Henry Kissinger . . . argue that the collapse of communism does not make the world any more secure because intolerant nationalism will grow up in its place.” This, he argued, would lead to “a kind of fatalism about nascent democracy” and “a policy prescription that looks to balance-of-power politics alone to insure our security”.
Thirty-one years on, who looks right? I’d say Kissinger. As the former US secretary of state and foreign policy sage prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday this week, it is notable that democracy in the former
