The world is full of mysteries. One of them is why, in the aftermath of the cold war, the major powers of the world could not simply get along. For a very brief moment, things seemed otherwise. After Communism unraveled, a degree of global harmony appeared tentatively to set in. Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, no longer frozen in the permafrost of Stalinism, displayed a common interest with the West in peacefully journeying toward economic development, democracy, and political integration. Even a major Communist holdout like China appeared to be ambling, with occasional stumbles, along the same garden path.

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