30 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Trends and the Current State of Communism and Post-communism in Europe and Asia

Abstract

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a historic milestone, which catalysed the transformation of communist regimes across the world. In the past three decades, we have seen significant reforms take hold in several former communist states, particularly in Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet countries, where socioeconomic and political ideals have gradually gravitated towards different forms of democracy and market economy. Meanwhile, in Asia, we have seen astonishing economic growth and a movement from central planning to the market, but few democratic reforms (e.g. in China and Vietnam), and some very specific hybrid regimes (e.g. in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia such as Azerbaijan), while the unpredictable, isolationist North Korea remains a source of instability for the broader region.