Every time the world enters a new crisis, Francis Fukuyama’s social media accounts light up with the same joke: “I guess history hasn’t ended after all then.” The war in Ukraine has been no different, with daily snark aimed at the author of the 1992 bestseller The End of History and the Last Man.
“This gets extremely tiresome,” Fukuyama, 69, tells me on a Zoom call from Skopje, North Macedonia, where he is giving a lecture. “It’s been going on for 30 years, but it comes back with every upheaval.” I remind him that last time we met, in 2014, Putin had just invaded Crimea, and Fukuyama was fretting over Russian aggression; and, yes, being mocked for history not being over. He chuckles ruefully.
