Predicting the Unthinkable, Anticipating the Impossible: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to America in the New Century

In the 1980s, most Americans scoffed at the idea that the Communist empire could collapse - but Georgie Anne Geyer was already outlining that probability. In the 1990s, the world was stunned by wars that raged across post-Yugoslavia and their viciousness - but Geyer on a trip to Belgrade in 1989, interviewed top officials and anticipated the conflicts. When 9/11 occurred, she used common sense and said, 'This was inevitable - the terrorists had already attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 and criminals always return to the scene of the crime.'Geyer argues that while the United States was being praised everywhere during this era of 'indispensable power' as the 'greatest power the world has known,' it actually had started on the road to decline. It had won the Cold War, but had immediately embarked upon more Vietnam-like small wars of tremendous cost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Across the board, it was no longer paying its way, while its domestic culture was being vulgarized at every turn.This book explains how, when, and where these declines happened. Geyer studies the history of nations and of peoples, observes human nature, particularly as influenced by religion and ideology; and is a close analyst of the acts of men and women when they perceive they have been humiliated by others or by history. She warns Americans and journalists that we must anticipate the changes in the world before they are upon us and that we must employ predictions to strengthen our nation and its principles.

Table of Contents:
I: The Expectant Decade; East Germany’s Not at All like Its Image, Ron; Berlin Wall Is Just One Example of How the World Is Split in Two; Soviet Empire Begins to Crack; Groping toward Pluralism; Iranian Children Herded to Death; We Still Can’t Go Home Again; Reagan Reforms: His View of Soviets; II: The Conceit of Innocence; Poland’s Winning Ways with Freedom; Policymakers Ignore New Trends in Terrorism; Yugoslavia Pulled Back to the Past and Ahead to the Future; Sick with History, Kosovo Awaits Serbs’ Final Blow; The Conceit of Innocence II; Who Killed Sir Michael Rose?; U.N and West Should Quit Playing “Dead Dog” in Bosnia; UN Secretary-General Believes in Negotiating; The United Nations and Neutralism; Russians Slowly Learning New Way; Unclear Indicator of the New Russia; After 1,000 Years of Absolute Faiths, Russia Has None; Russia Needed a New Identity, Not “Shock Therapy”; Kazakh Leader Grapples with Change; In Ironic Reversal, Little Finland Now Influencing Giant Neighbor Russia; Little Norway Goes Where Superpowers Cannot Trend; Holland’s “Managed Morality”; The Cold War Is Over but the Quest for Meaning Continues; Should U.S. Troops Have Gone on to Baghdad?; Seeking to Change Society by Force?; End of Cold War Released Violent, Separatist Feelings; Many Groups Are Aiding the Breakdown of Nation-States; Sadat’s Vision Made a Big Difference; Lessons from the Death of a Cowboy; Post -Cold War World Requires Institution-Building; Foreign Policy Differences of Utopians and Realists; Comandante Chavez Wants to Save Venezuela from “Abyss”; Marine Corps Experience is Applicable Elsewhere; What the Listeners Might Hear in Havana; Democracy is Process, Not Instant Coffee; Shanghai Full of Life, But Going Where?; Traditional Idea of Truth vs. Designer Truths; Our Foreign Policy toward China is Delusional; III: Terrorism an Era unto Itself; Gov George W. Bush is a Reasonable Reformer; Bush’s Faith-Based Program is Far Superior to Welfare State; Putin Arrives; Gulf War Did Not Change Saddam Hussein’s Priorities; Religious -Secular Tensions Divide Israel; Clinton Foreign Policy is Devoid of Principle; U.S Must Preserve What is Left of Our Civic Ideals; Internet Globalizers Can’t Erase Cultural Differences; In India the South Points the Way for the North; Information without Context or Knowledge is Meaningless; Afghani Radicals Foment Terror in Far-Flung Places; America is Losing Its Sense of Self; Haiti Political Terrorism Hangs over Elections; IV: Between Neutralism and Justice; “Cultural Intelligence” was Sacrificed on the Economic Altar; Long -Term U.S. Goal: Collapse of Terrorist Network; Winds of Change Keep Blowing over Bush White House; Rootless Young Men May Become Civilization’s Nemesis; Palestinians Despair as Hope for Peace and Land Disappear; Afghan Leader Abdul Haq was Rare Voice of Reason in Mayhem; Renewed Influence of Nation-States Marks Geopolitical Analysis; Journalism for the Sheer Joy of It; Pearl’s Death Marks Cold New Reality for Foreign Correspondents; Hawks ’ Eyes Look Longingly at War against Hussein; With Queen Mother’s Passing, Mothering Loses Great Exemplar; U.S No Longer Plays by the Rules It Helped to Invent; Bush Sr. Sends Not-So-Subtle Message with Award to Kennedy; Weapons of Mass Deception were Saddam’s Greatest Defense; Kuwait’s Historical Example Holds Lessons about Iraq; New Chapters Open in the Mystery behind the War; Earlier Examination Identified Disintegrating Nation-States; Remembering Yitzhak Rabin: A Legacy of Peace Derailed; “Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads” Reveal Nature, Not Despoil It; America’s Abbreviated Experiment with Empire-Building; “I Thought We Were Different”; Oman’s Development an Instructive Model for Middle East; Military Explores Traditional Power Centers in Chaotic Iraq; European Union Continues toward Role as World Player; Unity, Authority Were Missing Links in New Orleans Disaster; The Dark Heart of Dick Cheney; Peace is Not Fostered by Lip Service but by Patient Labor; Referendum in Uganda Offers Lesson for Emerging Democracies; China ’s Star is Rising as a World Superpower; Cohesive Future Depends on Comprehensive Newspaper Reporting; Deconstructing Don Rumsfeld; Baker on Cleanup Crew after “Sonny’s” Big Adventure; Without Newspapers, Americans Can’t Understand the World; Egyptian Cat Scholarship was Purely a Labor of Love; In Wake of Iraq Miscalculations, Talk Turns to Iran; Private Security Contractors Create Very Public Problems; Boris Yeltsin Leaves Legacy of Contradiction; Son Solves Mystery of Father’s Death in Soviet Gulag; Political , Not Religious, Issues are Motivating Terrorists; War Costs Endanger Our Future Security; Questions Remain in the Fall of Emperor Spitzer; Zbigniew Brzezinski: Master of Foreign Policy; Questions of War; Market “Magic” Relied on Greed; U.S Can’t Afford More Mistakes; America Has Lost Sight of Its Original Work Ethic; V: The Present as Future; The Original Community Organizer; Counterinsurgency Doesn’t Come Naturally to U.S. Forces; Crisis Mode Dominates International Conference; One Woman’s Journey through the Health Care Jungle; Obama Strategy to End War by Making War; Next Stop: Yemen; Is There a New Revolution Under Way in Iran?; Afghan Morass; Twentieth Anniversary of the Berlin Wall; The Fault is in Ourselves; Iraq War Still a Mistake; Price of Peace in Europe; Google in China; How did We Ever Get to be So Incivil and Vulgar? Without Even Trying?; Radical Young Terrorists aren’t So Mysterious After All; VI: Out of Time but in Space; Chicago Life is a Matter of “Becoming”; Vietnam Then Haiti Today; Pacifist Policies, Appeasing Terrorism; “Axis of Annoyance” Prevails in Latin America; War on the Southern Border; Spreading the Developmental “Gospel”; African Illusions and Realities; Germany’s Isolation Collapsed with The Wall; A Trip to Polish Roots; Mothers The Swing Generation for Women’s Rights; New South Africa Shines at the World Cup; America’s Little Wars are Draining Us in a Big Way; Summer Home: The Past is No More; Lessons from the Chicago South Side; A Graduate Comes Full Circle