Ivan Krastev - Stephen Holmes: The Light that Failed. A Reckoning

A book launch and panel discussion hosted at Central European University (CEU Vienna Campus), January 8, 2020. WELCOME REMARKS / Michael Ignatieff / President and Rector, CEU DISCUSSION / Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, co-authors of the book in discussion with Michael Ignatieff. Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only in the East but also back in the heartland of the West. Krastev and Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized. The event was organised by the Central European University and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM). Learn more: www.ceu.edu www.iwm.at