The period covered by this collection of editorials - 1980-1996 - was rich in "huge events", and in crises in which the world, as a whole, or some of its parts, including Africa and the Middle East, had to face.
The fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989) marked the end of a fifty-year (cold?) war, that of apartheid in South Africa (1990) ended a century of oppression in line with the practice of slavery, the Gulf War (1991) was the end of the "Arab illusion” and the dislocation of the Arab front of refusal, against Israel.
Concentrated on two years, these three events upset the balance of the planet; the devastating effects of the shock wave they triggered are still being felt: I think they will survive the century."