ABSTRACT
The Second World War lent powerful impetus to decolonisation, with the formation of major militarised entities in different parts of the world. It also delivered a serious blow to the ideology of linear progress when a power arose in the very centre of Europe that was based on values differing from commonly held Western beliefs and that threatened to destroy the traditional Western system. The West's victory led to euphoria. The West combined this euphoria with its relative economic weakness in its approach to the Eastern European states and former Soviet republics that had been liberated from communism. Religious revivals are occurring not only in former Soviet republics, but in the Middle East and among both Christians and Muslims in Africa. By looking at Eurasia's integration not only in terms of that region's relations with the West, but in the broader context of worldwide trends, one can draw more general conclusions.
