A number of different liberal theories have evolved over the past few centuries, they differ on a wide range of issues but they all share some common principles such as social liberties, representative governments, private property, and political equality. Liberal countries that have those principles as the foundation of their political and social systems tend to maintain peace among themselves and prosper economically. In modern times, there are over one hundred countries in the world that share key liberal principles (Doyle,2008,56), however, there are many regions, such as Middle East, Asia, South and Central America, Africa, Russia and former Soviet republics that have a number of countries that are driven by ideology, religion, or desire
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The world did change, however, not as dramatically as many had hoped. Archie Brown, professor at Oxford University, wrote in his book “The seven years of perestroika did change the world, and for the better, although the use that has been made of the opportunities it offered falls far short of the vision of a peaceful and a more equitable world”(Brown,2007,330). For almost a decade it seemed that Russia was finding its pathway from turmoil to democracy, however, things changed on the New Year Evening of 1999, Vladimir Putin became the new president of Russia. He was able to strengthen his grip on power and improve the economy due to high oil prices. Vladimir Putin maintains his grip on power ever since, despite changing his title from president to prime minister and back again. Through ought his rule Russia became a totalitarian country, one party dominates the elections, there is basically no freedom of press, and the government propaganda is very intensive. Many of the political opponents to the regime have been either imprisoned or even killed. Russian foreign policy has also changed dramatically, Russia under Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine, supported Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and constantly escalated tensions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. In modern world, Russia has taken the role of standing up to liberal powers and challenging their values and policies, and according to Forbes that makes Putin the most powerful men on the planet “Russia looks more and more like an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped rogue state with an undisputed, unpredictable and unaccountable head unconstrained by world opinion in pursuit of its goals”(Forbes,2014). Some of the former Soviet republics became liberal, for example the Baltic states, other republics never became democratic or
The world did change, however, not as dramatically as many had hoped. Archie Brown, professor at Oxford University, wrote in his book “The seven years of perestroika did change the world, and for the better, although the use that has been made of the opportunities it offered falls far short of the vision of a peaceful and a more equitable world”(Brown,2007,330). For almost a decade it seemed that Russia was finding its pathway from turmoil to democracy, however, things changed on the New Year Evening of 1999, Vladimir Putin became the new president of Russia. He was able to strengthen his grip on power and improve the economy due to high oil prices. Vladimir Putin maintains his grip on power ever since, despite changing his title from president to prime minister and back again. Through ought his rule Russia became a totalitarian country, one party dominates the elections, there is basically no freedom of press, and the government propaganda is very intensive. Many of the political opponents to the regime have been either imprisoned or even killed. Russian foreign policy has also changed dramatically, Russia under Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine, supported Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and constantly escalated tensions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. In modern world, Russia has taken the role of standing up to liberal powers and challenging their values and policies, and according to Forbes that makes Putin the most powerful men on the planet “Russia looks more and more like an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped rogue state with an undisputed, unpredictable and unaccountable head unconstrained by world opinion in pursuit of its goals”(Forbes,2014). Some of the former Soviet republics became liberal, for example the Baltic states, other republics never became democratic or