“End of History” Author Francis Fukuyama Honored in Greece

Francis Fukuyama, the author of “End of History,” one of the most influential books of the 1990s, was honored in Greece by the University of West Attica at a ceremony held at the Acropolis Museum.

The American political scientist of Japanese descent was awarded a Honorary Doctorate for his scientific contributions to the world.

The Rector of the University, Professor Panagiotis Kaldis, stated in his remarks that Professor Fukuyama, is a prominent international academic and author whose work influences and shapes policies in the field of world politics and economic development.

He noted that in his latest work Fukuyama makes extensive use of Plato’s theoretical basis, which is the emblem of University of West Attica, highlighting the importance of “anger,” one of the three parts of the soul, according to Plato.

Kaldis was referring to Fukuyama’s book “Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment,” which was published in 2018.

The American author said that he is now an “ambassador” for the University of West Attica and vowed to aid in its further growth.

Francis Fukuyama: The triumph of free-market capitalism

Fukuyama is known for his book “The End of History and the Last Man” (1992), which argues that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free-market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human government.

The book was an expansion on ideas expressed in an earlier article, “The End of History?” published in The National Interest. In the article, Fukuyama predicted the coming global triumph of political and economic liberalism:

What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. — Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?”, The National Interest, No.16 (Summer 1989)

However, his subsequent book Trust: Social Virtues and Creation of Prosperity (1995) modified his earlier position to acknowledge that culture cannot be cleanly separated from economics.

Fukuyama has been a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies since July 2010 and a Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. In August 2019, he was named director of the Ford Dorsey Master’s Program in International Policy at Stanford.

Before that, he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he was the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.

He is a council member of the International Forum for Democratic Studies founded by the National Endowment for Democracy and was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation. He is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by the group Reporters Without Borders.