On November 9, 1989 the world watched as the Berlin Wall, the epitome of Cold War standoff, was pulled asunder by East and West Germans alike. The nation that had been divided since the last war-torn days of 1945 was taking its first tangible step toward reconciliation.
Within the next few years the entire Soviet bloc, the bastion of communism, would crumble and fall. The Cold War was over, and the West had won.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this day in the history of the 20th century. With the reconciliation and reunification of Germany came the creation of a growing economic power that to this day still dominates European affairs.
For many that fateful day in 1989 established the supremacy of the United States on the global stage. Despite the fact that the wall ran through the heart of Germany, the true standoff was between Moscow and Washington, D.C. As the Berlin Wall fell, so too did the last scaffolding holding up what remained of the Soviet empire.
Twenty years later, the United States finds itself in an eerily similar situation. There are few who believe that the U.S. could ever find itself pitched into the chaos of post-communist Europe, but there were few who ever envisioned the economic turmoil in which U.S. is currently mired, and fewer still who thought that any nation could seriously challenge American power just two decades after one of its greatest victories.
In 1969 the world braced itself daily for the prospect of a nuclear onslaught that could destroy life as they knew it.
In 1989 it celebrated the dawning of a new era, full of hope and prosperity.
In 2009 it finds itself rather listless, still reeling from an economic crisis which may still get much worse before getting better, and just beginning to come to terms with the folly of its own excesses. Russia, once in a state of complete disarray, is now a growing social, political, and economic power. Asian nations like China and India are leading the charge in the first decade of the 21st century.
There is no telling how the world will look another twenty years from now. There is no telling what our place will be in a dynamic international system such as ours. But one thing we do know for certain is that things will change in ways we cannot imagine.