THERE JUST ISN'T MUCH TO FIGHT ABOUT AT THE END OF HISTORY:

Farewell to world peace?: The Georgian conflict ended 1,716 days of no war between nations. But trends favor peace (Charles Kurzman and Neil A. Englehart, August 29, 2008, CS Monitor)

[Y]ou may not have noticed that the world was at peace. But ever since India and Pakistan signed a cease-fire in November 2003, there have been no wars between governments. That's 1,716 straight days of world peace. Russia's invasion ended the streak on Aug. 8.

The previous record had been just over 600 days, from the end of the second Taiwan Straits crisis in 1958 to border skirmishes between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1960.

We've got as few dictatorships left to topple, a few guerilla movements left to root out, and some of the devolution into constituent parts could be violent (Chechnya, Kurdistan, Hezbollahstan, Pashtunistan, etc.) but the big questions are settled and there is no viable alternative to liberal democratic protestant capitalism.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 28, 2008 5:13 PM