Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Cultural Studies - Basics and Definitions, grade: 1,3, Stellenbosch Universitiy, language: English, abstract: After briefly summarizing Fukuyamas theory, the following essay will attempt to compare and contrast several aspects of his work to Samuel P. Huntingtons 1996 Clash of Civilizations, in which he strongly opposes Fukuyamas concept of global homogenization and instead argues in favor of a multi-polar, civilization-divergent course. I will then continue to show post- 1989 examples that question todays salience of Fukuyamas argument and also comment on the difficulties that we face when trying to define revolution in general, invariant terms. The final question that is open to answer is whether or to what extent those recent events can still be considered revolutions, if we assume that History has really ended in 1989. Does the term revolution necessarily imply directedness towards the establishment of liberal democracy, or can revolutions also occur in another direction? If the end of History means an end of revolution, what does that make the social changes that occurred after? With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, a round of self-congratulations was sparked in the West as the Western democracies had successfully won the Cold War which further led to the belief in the universalization of Western liberal democracy. 200 years after the Great Revolution in France, inspired by secularized enlightenment, managed to end the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI., and paved the way for more democratic governments all throughout Western Europe, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the end of History, as the world had reached its final destination, the only coherent political aspiration that spans different religions and cultures around the globe: liberal democracy. Further developments in international relations, such as the rise of terrorism or the economic success of Chinas authoritarian regime, however, lead to continued discussions about whether liberal democracy can really be considered to be the peak of all civilizations or whether it was simply Western ethnocentrism that led Fukuyama to believe in the superiority of Western values and Western politics. After all, competing ideologies continue to exist today and as the rise in radical anti- Western movements has shown, Americas role in the world remains at best ambiguous.