The 1990s were a decade characterized by optimism about a great future that lay ahead for generations to follow. Major challenges were approached with a realization that the world leadership had the capacity not only to meet them, but to turn them into unprecedented opportunities for global social and economic progress. In Missing the Tide, Donald Johnston demonstrates that none of these opportunities achieved their objectives, and in some cases failed completely. Scrutinizing some of the most significant unfulfilled hopes, he looks at the failure of the West to engage effectively with a democratic Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the European Unionœs fractious path to intending to become historyœs largest and most competitive economy, the expansion of the Marshall Plan concept to regions fractured by division and conflict, the diminishing prospect of global free trade and investment to stimulate economic growth and increase prosperity in the developing world, the absence of coordinated international actions to combat climate change, the pervasive corruption in corporate governance undermining healthy capitalism, and the growing threats to democracy. Sifting through the economic, social, and environmental wreckage of the past twenty years, Johnston reflects on the failures and frustrations of international public policy. Can this rapid decline be arrested and reversed? In assessing the impotency of the international community to meet these challenges, Missing the Tide extracts some lessons to be learned and looks with cautious optimism to the future.

The prime minister calls -- The genius of Jean Monnet and the Marshall Plan -- Europe listing, but afloat -- Russia : an opportunity bungled -- Statistics : their uses and abuses -- The economists and the dismal science -- Central bankers and their controversies -- Austerity versus growth--ideology versus common sense -- Bubbles in our future? Certainly! -- Sustainable development : a recipe with too many ngredients -- Climate change : unrealistic expectations -- The scourge of corruption, public and private -- Shaping globalization : dogged by failure -- The democratic imperative : perhaps not for all? -- Can the tide return?.