Relying on statistical data Ross too, argues that the past few years of the world economy have been the age of decline and dramatic polarisation. Amidst growing impoverishment the performance of the "small tigers" of Asia can be considered as an exception and not the model of advancement. The Fukuyama apotheosis of liberal capitalism is just an apology denied by a multitude of fact.

Starting out from the historical facts of interdependence of Eastern and Western Europe, he takes one after the other the criteria of "being European". He joins those who stress the specific characteristics of Central Europe. He states that the realisation of the principles of socialism can only take place with the development of the European middle class socialisation and the values of Christianity. For this reason, among others, the Soviet model has proved to be a dead end.

This lecture delivered at a Paris conference in 1991 analyses – on the basis of statistical data – the trend which is described in the international literature as the arrival of the age of "post-Fordism". In the author's view, the essence of the change of system lies in the fact that – in contrast to the Keynes-Ford model -the welfare model which used to seem to guarantee both some kind of relative equality ideal and the requirement of economic progress can no longer be coherent and therefore compatible with the demands of the capital. (In harmony with Amin's article on Trans-nationalisation"), the author calls attention to the halt in growth which is a new phenomenon.

Amin describes the past few decades as the period of capitalist offensive. From among the causes of the Gulf War, he stresses the interests in oil and notes about the monarchies in the Gulf region, that they are more like oil concessions than nation-states. Amin emphasises that in the present conflict, the North is unified, while the South is divided. In his opinion, the North-South difference can no longer be described by the differences between their levels of industrial developments, but rather by the differences in their financial systems, technologies and communication systems. When discussing the possibilities of opposition to the capitalist offensive, he raises the need for a United Nations Organisation which would take charge of the interests of the Third World, stating that the present UN is rather far from that.

The article analyzes the chances of the great regions of the world (Asia, ex-communist countries, the Third World and the West). Liberalism, con-servativism and populism in the new (United) Europe. The sources of the new nationalism reign over the ruins of the Soviet system. The lack of the internationalism on the "international" Left.