News: Fall of the Berlin Wall

There is a lot of coverage happening stateside about the fall of the Berlin wall. The New York Times has quite a few articles on this, and the more interesting one is how the meaning of the fall is still contested.

While 1989 was a very important year, a lot of changes are still taking place. Some argue that it's the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and others point to the policy changes and political actions in 1990 and 1991. Regardless, Germany was once half a country in transition and the East still partially is.

Although this isn't directly CIS related, the question begs to be asked: Would the transition states of the CIS have done better in the last 20 years if they were truely able to depend on an more democratic and economically stable second half? Since this isn't the reality it's hard to say, but I can only imagine that the economic reforms that the World Bank has done (they claim it's successful) would have taken quicker and been more effective if there was some local understanding and knowledge in that field.

At any rate the wall fell, Germany reunited, and the dissolution of the USSR would take place in the years to follow.