Después del Muro

When the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989 and protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square were forcibly put down, the world changed dramatically. The Cold War was over, a new world order was emerging. After the Wall is a bold and novel account of this decisive and extraordinary historical double moment that gave rise to the world as we know it today. Drawing on impressive previously unknown sources, Kristina Spohr shows how the world order peacefully changed thanks to decisions made between 1989 and 1992 by a small group of international leaders, who worked hand in hand to reinvent institutions and shape our world today. The author takes a fresh look at the role of US President George H. W. Bush, as well as figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand. Furthermore, it frames the European transformation within the global context, expertly weaving the Western and Asian timelines by comparing the events in Berlin and Moscow with those in Beijing, where the pro-democracy movement was brutally repressed by Deng Xiaoping, followed by another kind of communism. The world of Putin, Trump and Xi, with a frenzied European Union, corrupt states and a terrible migration crisis, has its origin in that global exit from the Cold War.