It's baaack.

History, that is.

Call me easily distracted, but the Olympic Games (the back story of the Olympic Games is probably more accurate) combined with Russia's invasion of Georgia in the past week or so have gotten me dwelling on foreign policy. Too bad I couldn't have been on vacation in Hawaii.

Anyway, I just read a profound op/ed over at the Weekly Standard called, History's Back. I think Robert Kagan accurately assesses the post-Cold War global situation and demonstrates how the New World Order's honeymoon--as well as the viability of Liberal and neo-Conservative global visions, has ended. From the article:

Nor has the growth of the Chinese and Russian economies produced the political liberalization that was once thought inevitable. Growing national wealth and autocracy have proven compatible, after all. Autocrats learn and adjust. The autocracies of Russia and China have figured out how to permit open economic activity while suppressing political activity. They have seen that people making money will keep their noses out of politics, especially if they know their noses will be cut off. New wealth gives autocracies a greater ability to control information--to monopolize television stations and to keep a grip on Internet traffic, for instance--often with the assistance of foreign corporations eager to do business with them.

Exactly; and though I have defended Dubya from unhinged rhetoric about nefarious motives for invading Iraq, I have long believed that the aspiration of planting a republic in Islamic Iraq was uber-wishful.

But, it's comforting to know that we're still doing pretty well in the medal count . . .