So much for globalization and a new world order. Everyone thought the world was on the cusp of a utopian dream when students began filling their Instagram slots with pictures of them walking China's Great Wall while eating a Big Mac in Beijing. Score one for internationalism. Student travel companies were building resumes detailing student jogs up the most remote peaks and traipsing through old ruined castles in what was once only considered East Europe or the "Third World." The Peace Corps had done it's job. Kids in Fiji could read (and similar places). The world was being made safe for democracy (thank you Woodrow Wilson) through Americanism: consumerism, entertainment, Disney Parks, Fast Foods, etc. 

But all was not going well in Russia where an ever deranged Vladimir Putin began to cast himself as the incarnation of Tsar Alexander III, a man whose three reasons for living were autocracy, orthodoxy and nationalism. The rest of the world, especially those break-away nations, were out to destroy Russia. Or, if you like, a Putin in the model of Ivan the Terrible, the so-called gatherer of Russian lands." But Putin doesn't have a thing for dogs.

In the early 1990's I was with a small group of Americans, mostly students, allowed to visit the Armory in the Kremlin while on a student visit to Moscow. We marveled at the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and Red Square. We were told that we were the first western group to see the Armory, but only for two hours.

It was a time we all thought would lead to greater openness. Russians no longer traded those marvelous black hats for a carton of Marlboro's. They wanted cash or some of those early video games.

We noticed American and European companies opening, and ate lunch at the largest McDonald's. It was New Year's and we were not just cold but frozen. But we loved the country, the people, and city. St. Petersburg was an oasis of art of beauty. We toasted the New Year with imported Belgian beer.

I took students and adults all over Europe and the South Pacific. I also joined Educator Conferences in places like Turkey and Russia. We learned from each other and looked forward to a world were all people would eventually be citizens of a planet, working together for the common good. In my latter years I taught global studies at a traditional black university and was thrilled when students spent a year abroad in African or South American Countries. 

But now all of that is moot. Alexander Dugin is much like an "Old Believer," much like the men who thought Peter the Great was an antichrist for wanting to leave Russia. And the Russian people, for the most part, either don't know the story is false or are too afraid to contradict it. Very similar in the United States with the myths perpetrated by a former president.

And so globalization may be dead. It may take decades to rebuild and restore old relationships. And for that, we have Russia to blame.