American views on world politics, 1989-2001

For Chinese New Year holiday reading this year in Ipoh, I have brought home American and the World : Debating the New Shape of International Politics , a collection of old essays written by some really big names in the US like Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama, Robert D. Kaplan and Fareed Zakaria from the sea change in the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies in 1989 to the immediate aftermath of Sept 11 attacks on American homeland in 2001.

In fact, I have already read many of those essays published mainly in the Foreign Affairs but re-reading them, especially those by Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama, ten years or more later stimulates deeper and more mature reflections with the benefits of more social experiences, and a larger stock of general and specialist knowledge. I do read books (and even attend funeral services) during Chinese New Year holidays because, having been brought up in the progressive and scientific tradition, I am not superstitious. Moreover, I don't gamble.