A Decade of Changes

With the arrival of 2010, the first decade of the 21st century is complete. This was a period of time that surpassed the predictions about possible transformations and, in this period, we definitively left behind the structures that had been around since the time of the Second World War.

The beginning of the decade almost coincided with the al-Qaeda attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, which were answered by George W. Bush with the worldwide anti-terrorism crusade and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq–both of which are long and costly and whose ends are yet to be seen. These two conflicts demonstrate that the end of the Cold War didn’t necessarily imply a clear step toward peace and cooperation; rather, new challenges and reasons for confrontation came to the fore.

These first ten years are enough to show that the United States’ role in the world has been altered and that, rather than being seen as an empire, it is now a leader that shares power with emerging countries–China, Russia, India, Brazil–that show daily that there is a new hierarchy of power in the world.

It isn’t a coincidence that we’ve seen another sign of the times in this decade. Barack Obama’s election caused enormous enthusiasm outside of the United States due to his foreign policy based on multilateralism, pragmatism and an anti-interventionist stance. Obama is tuned in to the realities of the new century.

The global economy was shaken by two crises over the past ten years: the bursting of the dot-com bubble at the beginning of the decade and the U.S. housing crisis, which brought the world into a recession at the end [of the decade]. Economists haven’t come to an agreement as to how far and how deep this recession will reach, nor do they share a consensus as to whether or not a new period of state intervention in the market has actually begun. But the neo-liberal euphoria that served as a basis for the so-called Washington Consensus of the 90s was left behind, with obvious consequences like the loss of confidence in the free market.

History was also shaken in other fields. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and the permanent access individuals now have to technology–iPods, third-generation cell phones with internet access–have altered daily life. In sports, five stars in particular really shine. Michael Schumacher, Roger Fderer, “Tiger” Woods, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have pulverized the records and dreams of those who came before them.

The decade was also crucial for Colombia. The Álvaro Uribe government practically dominated the political world, with effects so positive as to raise expectations that the greatest internal conflict of the 20th century–that of the guerrillas against the state– won’t carry over into the 21st century, and that, in the future, paramilitarism won’t have the strength it has had in the past.

At the same time, the re-elections–and, in particular, the second, which is still up in the air–pose a risk to the viability of democratic institutions that have been built up only with great effort. Along with “Uribism,” Colombia saw, for the first time in its history, the growth of a leftist democratic project–el Polo–,which won the office of mayor in Bogotá twice, in addition to second place in the presidential elections of 2006, earning never before seen voting results. Uribism and Polo were the principal players these past years and they assured the destruction of the bipartisan liberal-conservative monopoly that dominated the scene during the 20th century.

And there is so much more to say. The heights to which our national talents in music-Shakira, Juanes, Carlos Vives–have risen on the world stage, the changing ideas about marriage, family, abortion, the rights of homosexuals, or the emergence of international justice as an antidote to the impunity of national systems. All of these were transcendental and impressive. The first decade of the 21st century definitively transformed the world.