Programme Details

One of the most eminent thinkers of our time, Francis Fukuyama on the way to re-build Iraq .

When Francis Fukuyama published his book The End Of History he became one of the most famous and influential thinkers in the West. He argued that with the collapse of the Soviet Union , there were no great conflicts left, that liberal democracy had triumphed, that history as we know it had come to an end. The events of September 11 th would seem to have negated his argument, that there is now another conflict between two powerful competing ideologies; but Fukuyama disagrees. And in his new book State Building he describes how liberal democracy can and should take over "weak states" and introduce a new system of order and control; if we don't then those weak states can becomes centres of terrorism, he argues. 

Francis Fukuyama will be putting his case to Philip Dodd on Nightwaves at 9.30. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
State Building by Francis Fukuyama is published by Profile Books

The Long Firm is on Wednesday nights on BBC 2 at 9pm

Farenheit 9/11 is on cinemas around the country from Friday