Theme 5: Old Patterns Return

The optimistic post-Cold War assumption that history had moved permanently toward liberal democracy and integrated markets has not held. Great-power competition has returned (U.S.-China, Russia's war on Ukraine). Religious and ethnic identities have proven durable. Nationalism has revived. Maria should recognize that the historical patterns she has studied in earlier units (great-power rivalry, nationalism, religious mobilization, ideological conflict) continue to shape the present.