Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities. Great powers are once again competing for geopolitical influence. International competition between the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raises new threats of regional conflict. The expectation that after the Cold War the world had entered an era of international convergence has proved wrong. We have entered an age of divergence.In ''The Return of History and the End of Dreams'', Robert Kagan masterfully poses the questions facing the democratic world today. For the past few years, it has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. But now History has returned, and the peoples of the liberal world need to choose whether they want to shape it - or let others shape it for them.