| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1991 enticed scores of Western commentators to relegate 'ideology' to the dustbin of history. Proclaiming a radically new era in human history, they argued that ideology had ended with the final triumph of liberal capitalism. This dream of a universal set of political ideas ruling the world came crashing down with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Since then, influential political leaders have argued that the contest with jihadist Islamism represents much more than the military conflict. It is, as Presidents Bush and Obama put it, the 'decisive ideological struggle of our time'.1 Far from being moribund, then, competing political belief systems are alive and well in the early twenty-first century.
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