ABSTRACT
The world changed dramatically around the turn of the 1990s through four separate but connected events: the collapse of the Communist system in Eastern Europe during 1980s; the breach of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989; the unification of Germany in October, 1990; and the failure of the military coup in the Soviet Union in August, 1991, with the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet impérium. The global concert was established and has been maintained by the maritime democracies, with Great Britain originally at its center. The states of the global concert have fought and beaten back threats from several European continental challengers, such as Napoleon, Wilhelm II, Hitler, or the Soviet Union—usually at immense cost to themselves as well as to their opponents. The global concert, with America and Germany as prominent members, has won the great battle of the cold war. It was able to do that while also reshaping much of the world outside the Communist system.
