Francis Fukuyama Research Articles

Traversing the Romance of a Liberal International Order: The Democratic Peace Thesis and the Regional Security Problematique in South Asia

The democratic peace hypothesis, which is embedded in the neo-Kantian romance of liberal cosmopolitan idealism, was framed in the spatiotemporal context of the Cold War bipolarity. Michael Doyle, who is one of its proponents, invoked the Kantian philosophical abstraction of ‘the perpetual peace’ by providing an intellectual defence and moral high ground for the values of the Liberal Capitalist world. In the post–Cold War setting, Francis Fukuyama re-casted the hypothesis and portrayed the triumph of liberal international order as ‘the end of history’. He attempted to reframe the democratic peace thesis, not only to celebrate liberal values as the normative exemplar for ordering a post–Cold War international system but also to provide an intellectual defence for the newly emerging space for American leadership in a post-hegemonic international system. This intellectual defence of the ethical supremacy of liberal idealism in the world, shaped by the leadership of the USA, was entrenched in the epistemological Imperialism of the West. Besides, it also reflected an exclusionary idea of the history of international relations that was heavily grounded in the chronology of the post-Westphalia international order. Situating ourselves in this framework, this article is an attempt to critique the epistemic foundations of the democratic peace hypothesis, by deconstructing its assertions in the geostrategic context of the regional security architecture in South Asia. The article criticizes the democratic peace thesis, using an analysis of the Kargil conflict (1999) between India and Pakistan, and by placing ourselves in the epistemological framework of the historical turn in international relations.

The End of Ideology, the Ideology of the End

When in 1989 Francis Fukuyama launched his thesis about the “end of history,” it rhymed perfectly with another fashionable suggestion about the “end of ideology.” This paper attempts to examine what could be called the ideology of the end, of which both of these trendy phrases partake. It looks particularly into the predominant modality both of these so-called “ends” display whereby the end is paired with its apparent opposite: repetition or continuation of what it is supposed to end. Taking its cue from a couple of comedic examples in film and literature (Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Italo Svevo’s Zeno’s Conscience), this essay attempts to make some philosophical and political points that could help us orientate today when thinking about ideology and its alleged end.

Review: The Sociology of Identity: The Dialectics of Consciousness, Deconstruction and Reconstruction, by Abdulghani Imad

Review: The Sociology of Identity: The Dialectics of Consciousness, Deconstruction and Reconstruction, by Abdulghani Imad

Commissioned Book Review: Francis Fukuyama, Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle For Recognition

Commissioned Book Review: Francis Fukuyama, <i>Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle For Recognition</i>

The concept of collective hope according to Józef Kozielecki and Chantal Delsol

W niniejszym artykule ukażemy koncepcję nadziei zbiorowej polskiego psychologa Józefa Kozieleckiego. W obszarze psychologii i socjologii daje potwierdzone w tych naukach argumenty wskazujące na potrzebę uzasadnionej nadziei zarówno indywidualnej, jak i zbiorowej. Na tej bazie przekonuje do budowania społeczeństwa nadziei, gdzie góruje ona nad lękiem przed niedookreśloną przyszłością i wszelkimi zmianami. Wyraźnie stwierdza, że trzeba się przeciwstawić ideologizacji życia społecznego w stylu Francisa Fukuyamy, Richarda Rorty’ego czy Jacques’a Derridy. Tworzą oni intelektualne utopie, niemające potwierdzenia w naukowych badaniach psychologicznych i socjologicznych, choć są nośne w wielu kręgach kulturowych późnej nowoczesności. By wzmocnić to przekonanie Józefa Kozieleckiego, odwołamy się do badań Chantal Delsol francuskiej filozof politycznej. Badała ona zmiany kulturowe i polityczne w Europie w XX i XXI wieku. Określiła ten czas jako „późną nowoczesność”. W swoich pracach stawia uzasadnioną diagnozę, że pewne nurty niszczą nadzieję na osiąganie dalekosiężnych celów zarówno indywidualnych, jak i zbiorowych, a tym bardziej nadzieję eschatologiczną w imię tworzenia społecznych utopii. Efektem badawczym będzie zestawienie poglądów polskiego naukowca dotyczących nadziei zbiorowej z przekonaniem Chantal Delsol, że nadzieja, i to ta związana z religią monoteistyczną. jest ludziom potrzebna, by mogli się rozwijać i osiągać zarówno dystalne, jak i eschatologiczne cele. Wnioski zostały wypracowane w obszarze psychologii, socjologii i filozofii i wspierają przekonanie o wartości nadziei eschatologicznej.

From the 'End of History' to the 'End of Liberalism'?

A variety of pathologies within contemporary Western political regimes question the preference for liberal democracies: they can be contradictory, have produced significant economic inequalities, corroded social fabric, and lack a claim to exceptionalism. This judgment leads critics to conclude that not only the implementation but also the very foundation of liberal principles is flawed. In opposition to Francis Fukuyama’s initial (and now revised) claim from 1989, some argue that liberalism, rather than history, has come to its end. This essay argues that there are still merits to liberal democracies that are worth preserving. Utilising arguments from classical and neoliberal traditions it is possible to claim that individualism still serves as a bulwark against the subjugation of individuals and the arbitrary divisions based on ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. Liberal principles continue to offer an antidote to the strengthening of authoritarian tendencies, nationalistic sentiments, xenophobia and non-democratic regimes in general.

GLOBALISATION AT THE CROSSROADS? THE REVIVAL OF NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY POLITICS

This article is a revised and expanded version of the author’s keynote address for the inaugural International Conference on Politics and International Studies (ICPIS) 2018, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The title reflects the official theme of the said scholarly congregation, which deliberates on the contested notions of globalisation and the phenomenon’s related outcomes, including its much touted hegemonic, universal liberal qualities, which have elicited a backlash that has seen the revival of nationalism and identity politics during the last few decades. That globalisation has arrived at a crossroads and the thought of what might lie ahead is what this paper seeks to ponder, through the prism and critique of both recent as well as older works by the likes of Francis Fukuyama, Charles Taylor, Wang Gungwu and Samuel P. Huntington. More specifically, it critically explores the evolution and progress of globalisation from both historical and international relations (IR) perspectives, explicating watershed eras in the long cycle of modern international history that had as much facilitated as hindered the realisation of a universal liberal consensus, or liberal triumph. Although concluding that globalisation has been stopped in its tracks, the article nevertheless, expresses concerns regarding the limitations of Western-oriented IR as a discipline in comprehensively grasping the complexities of post-globalisation dynamics shaped by cultural-ideational specificities, not to mention, the fallacy of overemphasising on “identity politics” as a “master concept” in explaining all that is happening in contemporary world politics. Instead, it contends on the need to review existing analytical frameworks, while exploring new “logics” in the quest to construct new paradigms to help make sense of a post-globalisation, post-liberal, probably post-Western era.

End of History or the Beginning of Global Tyranny in Capitalism: A Re-Interpretation of the Imperial Sources

The task undertaken in this paper is an attempt to contextualize the invidious and seemingly invincible role being played by major political ‘capitals’ in the reification, deification, hence hegemonization of the capitalist ideology in the global economic system. This is done within the ambit of the demise of Soviet socialism, the infiltration of communist China by the mutability, adaptability and profitability of capitalist ethos; the opening up of revolutionary Cuba, the evocation of the Arab Spring which gutted the arch-priest of Jamahiriya in Libya, the ambitious but painful containment of the Korean peoples power and the collapsed of the system of economic commands and stage-management across the world. In this light, the paper tried to enquire into how the word ‘capital’ became the name given to states’ headquarters and how this reality has aided the dominance or hegemony of capitalism in the world. Employing the hegemonic stability theory and descriptive analysis method, the paper contends that the christening of states’ seats of power as capitals or capital cities was a subtle strategy of capitalism to deepen its roots. It however find out that this subtle hegemonization is not so much ‘the end of history’ as postulated by Francis Fukuyama than the beginning of time in diagnostic vicious cycle in global tyranny. It also established that the failure of Soviet socialism was not so much about the supremacy of capitalism or liberalism over socialism than the fact that Lenin’s impatience in not allowing capitalism to blossom to its peak before embarking on his Bolshevik revolution made mockery of Marxism – and made capitalism to topple socialism – but did not kill it. The paper recommends among others that states, especially the third world countries, should wake up to this subtlety and begin to put fences and wedges against its perniciousness and unbridled rapacity. These walls must necessarily lean toward protectionism to encourage the development of local resources for a sustainable growth

THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL TRUST ON PARTICIPATION OF PEOPLE IN POLITICS IN JAHROM CITY, IRAN

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of political and social trust for the political participation of people in Jahrom City, Iran. And also, this study tries to assess the effect of social media on people's trust, which can affect their political participation in the society of Iran.&#x0D; Methodology: The researcher-made questionnaire was used by experts to determine its validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate its reliability for all variables. Regression coefficient, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The sample size was calculated by the Cochran formula, and 383 individuals were selected by using simple random multi-stage cluster sampling.&#x0D; Main Findings: The regression results indicate that the generalized social and political trust could determine 9% and 11%, respectively of changes independent variable, which was the political participation of citizens in Jahrom City. The theoretical foundations of the research are based on the theories of Robert Putnam, Gabriel Mandel, Francis Fukuyama, Nicholas Luhmann, Jürgen Habermas, Martin Lipset, and Robert Dose.&#x0D; Applications of this study: The present study is an applied study in terms of purpose, a practical-field study in terms of data collection, a large-scale study in terms of scale, and a short-term cross-sectional study in terms of time. The statistical population of this research comprises the holders of voting rights, those aged 18 years or more living in Jahrom city.&#x0D; Novelty/Originality of this study: The contextual factors such as gender, marital status, income, job, and social class did not show a significant relationship with political participation, which may be due to the homogeneity of political behavior in cities due to the lack of individual characteristics and, consequently, the weakness of individualism in smaller social settings.

Education at the end of history: A response to Francis Fukuyama

By 1989, fascism had long been defeated in Europe, and reforms in the Soviet Union appeared to signify the collapse of communist ideology, prompting Francis Fukuyama to famously declare the ‘end of history’. Since then, neoliberalism has been rolled out globally. This paper argues that, with regard to higher education, Fukuyama’s claim that the pursuit of knowledge will be replaced by the ‘satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands’ is prescient. What, then, prompted Fukuyama to qualify his predictions in 2018? Citing both the turmoil of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, Fukuyama blames identity politics for the breakdown of consensus over what the nation is, or should be, and suggests that the promotion of creedal identity might rescue Western democracy from populism. This paper disagrees: using the examples of Brexit and the promotion of Fundamental British Values in schools, it argues that creedal identity has become another expression of populism. Rejecting the claim that identity politics are the ultimate source of populism, it argues that populism is the predictable outcome of recession in the market economy.

Fukuyama, Francis (2019): Identidad. La demanda de dignidad y las políticas de resentimiento. Barcelona: Deusto

Crítica del ensayo “Identidad. La demanda de dignidad y las políticas de resentimiento” del politólogo estadounidense Francis Fukuyama.

Thinking the new after the fall of the Berlin Wall: Juri Lotman’s dialogism of history

ABSTRACT This paper reads semiotician Juri Lotman’s later works (1985–1993) against the background of the debates on historicity and temporality that were triggered in the West by the fall of the Berlin Wall, from Francis Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ to François Hartog’s ‘presentism’. The collapse of the USSR provoked a shift of attention in Lotman’s work from signs and texts to historical processes that he rethinks from the point of view of change and novelty, paying particular attention to the place of human freedom and choice in unpredictable historical circumstances. This gives me a new perspective from which to readdress a series of shortcomings in the post–Cold War Western debates on historical time.

Thoughtfulness and Hospitality: On Refusing Antagonistic Politics at the End of History

The paper is constructed around the issues involved for the critical interrogation of the instrumental rationality generating political thoughtlessness in the following claim: “Humanity is in crisis—and there is no exit from that crisis other than solidarity of humans”. [Zygmunt Bauman] To even interrogate this as a crisis requires a depth-analysis of the hegemony of subject-formation, and this occurs in two markedly different ways. The first takes shape around a critical investigation of the neoliberalisation of subjectivity through Francis Fukuyama’s important text, The End of History and the Last Man. The second subjects the neoliberal post-political global subject to a competing antagonistic political construal in Samuel Huntington’s influential The Clash of Civilizations. The implication is of their importance to a genealogy of the range of contemporary political possibilities. The suggested repair takes the form of a particular gesture: a gesture towards subjecting the globally fractured subject takes shape within a theological configuration in terms of a Christic politics of neighbourliness.

Identity according to Francis Fukuyama: An obstacle to the end of history

Abstract This review essay focuses on Francis Fukuyama’s book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, which was published in 2018. The text emphasises placing Fukuyama’s new publication in the context of his multi-year work for its correct interpretation. Fukuyama’s conception of the human soul is analysed in confrontation with contemporary issues of liberal democracy. It mentions other authors criticisms of Fukuyama’s work and, at the same time, it is defended by Fukuyama himself. The text can be seen as an introduction to Francis Fukuyama’s reasoning regarding the modern problems of liberal democracy and as an attempt to understand his unsuccessful prediction of the end of history. The central theme of the text is the concept of identity, which Fukuyama describes as a source of conflicts and friction areas in modern societies. Fukuyama’s findings are supplemented by the findings of other authors and current world events.

Insurgency, Political Violence, and Democracy in Latin America

Once upon a time, pluralist (Dahl 1961) and modernization theories (Lipset 1959) described liberal democracy as a political regime that tended to exclude violence, insurgency, and corruption. A few decades later, Francis Fukuyama (1992) argued that in the long run, liberal democracy would triumph over other political alternatives, and about the same time Samuel Huntington (1991) revealed a massive wave of democratization (or redemocratization) in different parts of the world.

Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018, 240 pp.

Reseña del libro de Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018, 240 pp.

The End of the English Department: Decolonizing Futures

The End of the English Department: Decolonizing Futures Ronald Cummings (bio) Call this apocalyptic propaganda if you must:The World Ended in the Spring of 2006.But how much you are willing to accept this storydepends on how far your minds can stretch. Kei Miller A Light Song of Light The epigraph which opens this brief discussion is taken from a poem by the Jamaican writer Kei Miller. The poem begins with a declaration of the end of the world, which Miller locates in 2006. Although he is not specific in identifying any single apocalyptic event, he references a confluence of happenings: “America, Iraq, Korea; / the pressing of buttons; the detonation of bombs / from one pole to the next; the grand explosion / of people” (32). He declares “what we most feared / would happen has happened.” If 2006, in Miller’s narrative, marks one end of the world, it proves interesting now to look back on that time from a fearful and unsettled present. We can find another accounting of that time and of the detonation of lives daily in Dionne Brand’s book Inventory, published in that fateful year, 2006. She closes that volume with an important declaration about [End Page 1] the need for truth telling in times of crisis: “I have nothing soothing to tell you, / that’s not my job” (100). My own attempts here to reflect on what I am calling the end of the English department is similarly saying soothing things in these troubled times. It is a call to attend urgently to the fraught and precarious present in relation to the work we do as scholars within universities and in literature departments. But to understand the end of the English department as an event, or a singular moment, is also to miss the point. Rather, this work is joining a call, one variously echoed, revisited, and reframed in the essays in the discussion forum by Nadine Attewell, Sonnet L’Abbé, and Aubrey Hanson, where they each urge us to think collectively about and, even more importantly, to meaningfully and purposely engage in the decolonization of the study of literature. They ask us to think seriously about the terms on which we continue to do literary studies as well as about the institutional contexts that enable and, even more tellingly, constrain decolonizing work. While they each extend a keen invitation to dialogue and deeper thinking about our individual and collective praxis, in my own reflections here I want to further suggest that what might be at stake in ongoing calls for decolonization is perhaps also an end of the English department. At the very least, we are being asked to think seriously about the restructuring of our discipline, its function, purpose, and interventions. In our current moment of Black and Indigenous political insurgency, with calls to decolonize the curriculum and diversity initiatives within the university, what does it mean to continue to do work under the sign of English studies? What new formations and possibilities might our current moment of institutional precarity and change, including the panic of the pandemic, allow us to imagine? Whither the future of the English department? In Miller’s poem, referenced above, what he calls the end of the world is not a finite end of things. It is the end of a particular formation of things. Much like Francis Fukuyama’s haunting notion of the “end of history,” which attends to the end of a particular structuring of the geo-political world (the historic organization of political and economic life and futures through the ideological divide of communism and capitalism), Miller’s “end of the world” is importantly and strategically rendered as a potential opening to “parallel universes” (32). He offers an invitation to think about “the one thousand lives we lived simultaneously / and which could only be glimpsed through magic / mirrors or déjà vu” (32). This is also a rejection of linear formulations of histories. Particularly in his attention to déjà vu, as structuring affect, Miller asks us to sense and remember how the world, as one might know and feel it and as it has been ordered, has ended several [End Page 2...

William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and the Return of History

William Gibson's Pattern Recognition contains extensive descriptions of consumer objects that reference the horrors of the past while eliding their reality. This extensive motif in the novel seems an echo of Francis Fukuyama's argument that the end of the Cold War had seen the triumph of political democracy combined with consumer capitalism in an end-point for history itself. Such illusions were profoundly destabilised by the 9/11 terror attacks, a central event in Gibson's novel, and Pattern Recognition is one of several 9/11 novels that seek to understand that day's events through a concern with history. Here, Cayce's dual search for the mysterious footage and her missing father leads her to both an engagement with the realities of historical trauma and a fulfilment of her own desire to mourn.

Proinkluzyjne walory kapitału społecznego osób z niepełnosprawnością

People with disabilities form a group which is threatened by social exclusion. Social sciences are becoming more and more concerned about social capital issues in terms of creating programmes for social inclusion of various marginalised groups. The paper discusses selected concepts of social capital according to James Coleman, Nan Lin, Francis Fukuyama and Robert D. Putnam. The author of the paper has made a comparative analysis of the results of various authors’ research on the social capital of the non-disabled (fully-fit) and the disabled in terms of: (1) social networks, (2) social trust, (3) compliance with social rules, social exchange and cooperation, (4) communication skills and (5) feeling of physical and mental health. The paper presents argumentation on a macrosystem, mesocosm and microsystem level justifying the need to use social capital as a theoretical support for creating social inclusion network in relation to the disabled. The issue is to leave a charity and paternal model applied in the activities for persons with disabilities and to follow the model of inclusion and participation. The discussion is supplemented by a description of challenges that special education is facing in terms of further research work on social capital.

Нарратологический подход к концепции «конца истории» Ф. Фукуямы

The article considers “the end of history” conception developed by the outstanding modern political scientist and philosopher Francis Fukuyama. The study is based on narratological notions, conceptions and methods. Fukuyama’s model of global historical process is subjected to a narratological analysis. The researcher’s attention is focused on the story structure and the story conflict. The research findings allow revealing contradiction between the notion “the end of history” and actual incompleteness of historical process. The conclusions are extrapolated to other philosophical and historical conceptions containing “the end of history” notion.