Introductory historical commentary / W.H. McNeill -- Great powers and empires : historical mechanisms of their making and breaking / I. Geiss -- The fall of Great Britain : peace, stability, and legitimacy / Z. Steiner -- The fall of Austria-Hungary : peace, stability, and legitimacy / I. Deak -- The fall of Germany : peace, stability, and legitimacy / W.J. Mommsen -- The fall of empires - Russia and the Soviet Union / A. Nove -- The fall of the Soviet Union : peace, stability and legitimacy / A.O. Chubarian -- The collapse of the Soviet Union : leadership, elites, and legitimacy / V.M. Zubok -- The end of the Cold War and the future of American power / A.L. Friedberg -- The "fall" of the United States : peace, stability, and legitimacy / S. Strange -- Peace, stability, and legitimacy in Africa : the factor of colonialism and neocolonialism / J.F. Ade Ajayi -- Empires and anti-empires : Asia in world politics / W. Gungwu -- The superpowers in the Middle East : Cold War and Post-Cold-War policies / C.R. Saivetz -- The voice of the people : political theorists on the international implications of democracy / M.W. Doyle -- The cycle of great powers : has it finally been broken? / R. Gilpin -- Peace, stability, and legitimacy, 1990-2025/2050 / I. Wallerstein -- Peace, legitimacy, and the Post-Cold-War world : where do we go from here? / J.L. Gaddis -- Conclusions / P. Kennedy -- The fall of empires : peace, stability, and legitimacy / G. Lundestad.