Fukuyama raises a warning cry from Berlin: “The last man” searches for his identity in a disintegrating world
In a prominent cultural and political event that took place in the summer of 2026, intellectual circles in Germany and the world celebrated the publication of the most personal and profound book by the famous American thinker and political philosopher Francis Fukuyama, entitled: The Last Man: Where is the World Heading? (Der letzte Mensch: Wohin steuert die Welt?). The official publication of the book by the prestigious publishing house “Hoffmann and Campi” (Hoffmann undCampe) sparked a huge wave of discussions, bringing to mind the global controversy that the writer sparked more than three decades ago.
The prestigious magazine The New Yorker described Fukuyama on the occasion of this issue as "an avant-garde thinker of exceptional importance", as writing the new comes as a courageous review, self-criticism, and a highly sensitive geopolitical reading of the reality and future of liberal democracies that today are living their darkest times under the weight of identity conflicts and the accelerating rise of authoritarian regimes.## From the “end of history” to the brink of the abyss: self-examination
In 1992, Fukuyama shocked the world with his famous thesis The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argued that Western liberal democracy represented the end point of humanity's ideological evolution and the final form of human government after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.Today, in his most recent book, Fukuyama returns to contemplate the concept of the “last man” not as a stable victor, but as a being in crisis searching for recognition and dignity in a world threatened by disintegration. The American thinker admits with unusual frankness that the global liberal order is no longer guaranteed to survive, and that history has not ended, but rather has taken a sharp turn towards unexpected paths.
A very personal book and an intellectual biographyWhat distinguishes this book from the rest of Fukuyama's previous works is its human and personal character. It combines sober political analysis with his intellectual biography. The writer traces the stages of his life and his ideological transformations:Intellectual beginnings: His absolute optimism in the victorious liberalism of the 1990s.
- Conservative Phase: His intersection and subsequent separation from the neoconservative movement in the United States after the Iraq War.
- Critical Realism: His stability today as an independent theorist who clearly sees the flaws of the system he always defended.
The tripartite anatomy of the crisis of the contemporary world
Fukuyama puts his finger on the bleeding wounds in the body of the contemporary world, identifying three main threats that lead humanity towards the unknown:1. Uncontrolled capitalism: He believes that extreme economic neoliberalism has created huge class gaps and deepened the sense of marginalization of millions, prompting them to throw themselves into the arms of populist movements.
- Conflict of Identities and Recognition Politics: It warns against the transformation of political conflict from economic and social programs into narrow ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts that eliminate the commonalities between people.3. Technological encroachment: The book discusses how social media algorithms and artificial intelligence contribute to the fragmentation of truth, the orientation of peoples, and the weakening of traditional democratic institutions.
