The Fall of Berlin Wall vis-a-vis The (New) Rise of Asia History

The Berlin Wall's monumental event, which divides a country into two states that are completely different from its political ideology, still remains in the international world. The event also spearheaded the emergence of democratic ideology which was widely adopted by European countries.  It was a refinement of the international legal basis on the problem of migration, and made many States aware of the importance of the boundaries of a state affirmed and guarded. The Berlin Wall is a concrete barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) that separates West Berlin and East Berlin and other East German areas that making West Berlin as an enclave.

In 1989, there was a radical political change in the Eastern Bloc region, which was associated with liberalization of the authority system in the Eastern Bloc and also the diminishing influence of the Soviet Union in countries such as Poland and Hungary. After weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that East Germans could go to West Germany and West Berlin.  So the East German crowd crossed and climbed the wall, followed by West Germans on the other side to celebrate the atmosphere of freedom. A few weeks later, public euphoria and souvenir hunters eventually cracked the walls.  Later, most of these walls were destroyed by the government using heavy equipment. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for the reunification of Germany, October 3, 1990.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in history has become a synonym for the collapse of "communism". In the more than 20 years since this great event, we have witnessed an enormous ideological offensive against the ideas of marxism on a world scale. This event is upheld as evidence of the death of communism, socialism, and marxism.  Not long ago, this was even considered the end of Jahistory. But since then the wheel of history has been spinning many times.

For Asia, the most important impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union is the shifting of the superiority of military power to the superiority of economic power in international relations. Indeed rapid economic growth also occurred during the Industrial Revolution and post-World War II.  But the post-Cold War economic growth has brought about global change.

Another decisive event was the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. If it were not for the end of the Cold War, the Western countries would not relinquish China from the responsibility of the massacre. But the West takes a pragmatic approach, does not impose economic sanctions, and even helps China integrate into the global economy and international institutions through trade and investment liberalization. Had the United States and its allies adopted an approach of economic sanctions, just as it did to Cuba and Burma, the Chinese economy would not grow as it is now, while the country would remain closed and unstable.

More broadly, the bankruptcy of Marxism in 1989 enabled Asian countries, including China and India, to adopt an overt capitalist policy. Although China's economic revival had already begun under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, it was not until 1989 that the Chinese Communist Party could openly lay the creation of wealth above ideology.  This Chinese example has a constructive influence over other communist parties that still survive in Asia and elsewhere in the world.

For India, the end of the Cold War has triggered a foreign policy crisis due to the breakdown of relations with its most reliable partner, the Soviet Union. But, as with the financial crisis of 1991, India was able to rise up with a new foreign policy - a policy that breaks away from overly idealistic traditions and embraces wider realism and pragmatism. India, post-Cold War, began to build mutually strategic partnerships with major players in Asia and other parts of the world.  The "global strategic partnership" with the United States - a hallmark of this decade - was made possible by a shift in Indian post-1989 policy thinking.

Regardless of the democratic pullback in Russia, China - which is now the oldest autocracy in the world - shows, when authoritarianism is rooted, the goods and services market can hinder the pace of the market of political ideas. More than twenty years after the collapse of communism, authoritarian capitalism has emerged as a major contender of efforts to spread democratic values in the world.

Reference: 

1 Mary Elise Sarotte, Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, (New York: Basic Books, 2014), p. 10.  

2 Ibid., p. 11---12.