ABSTRACT

Francis Fukuyama's suggests that one have reached the end of history' tends to meet with outright derision. His ideas, everyone seems to agree, represent a prototypical example of misguided utopian thinking. The problem is, taken in any other way it is downright dangerous. If the aim is not the improvement of liberal democracy, but a revolution leading to a new order beyond it, utopianism is a recipe for disaster. Henk de Berg wish to argue that, in fact, the opposite is the case and that the theory of the end of history can only properly be understood as a warning against utopianism not because Fukuyama exemplifies a navely optimistic belief that is mistaken, but because he provides a realistically sober view that is correct. Before that, Fukuyama was Deputy Director of the US State Department's Policy Planning Staff. He is currently the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.