EDITORS PAGE
The revolution in Europe Political power is the ability to command obedience. Coercion, repression, and a willingness to use force can enhance that ability and prolong it. But they cannot assure it, as has been so dramatically demonstrated in East Europe over the past year. Growing internal pressures, chronic economic depression, intolerable corruption, a dwindling quality of life, and a dearth of hope for the future led to the cascade of unstoppable revolutions that have transformed six East European nations. Triggered, in part, by massive political change within the Soviet Union and by a fundamental shift in that nation's attitude toward its East European neighbors, the peoples of Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria decided that they would not "take it any more." As a result, 40-year-old, seemingly immutable regimes had to go. What were always perceived as alien, socialist, singleparty governments have been rejected and replaced by a commitment to multiparty democracy, truly free and meaningful elections, and free enterprise—concepts unpracticed in East Europe in 50 years or more, if ever. What is truly remarkable about these changes is that they were not engineered by the captains and kings traditionally regarded as the locus of real power. The military played no active role, except a supportive one in Romania. These revolutions have truly demonstrated that, ultimately, power rests with the people. This is something no regime—socialist, democratic, or otherwise—should ever forget. This East European upheaval, coupled with the ongoing move toward closer integration of the economies of the nations of West Europe, has reverberations that are being felt worldwide. These changes are already leading to a réévaluation of the concept of national security and of the appropriate balance of military, economic, social, and political factors to maintain it. Maybe all this political ferment will also lead to a constructive, sober evaluation of what adjustments may be needed in the free enterprise system itself. Although this approach to ordering affairs is the best that mankind has devised to date, nobody would claim it is without its problems. For instance, free enterprise has had spotty success in developing nations. The past decade has been an economic disaster for debtridden Latin America. Most African nations remain stalled. Even in this country little progress is being made toward handling the problems of the underclass. Such broad interpretations of the implications of a changed and revitalized Europe are beyond the ken of C&EN. But the magazine does devote 48 pages of this issue to a preliminary review and analysis of what the enormous political changes between the Elbe and the Vistula may mean to the scientific, especially the chemical, community. East Europe has always been part of the worldwide chemical community, even if a stunted and isolated part over the past 40 years. It is home to a major, if now outdated, chemical industry. It offers a potentially large new market to western chemical makers for products, processes, and services. It also offers opportunities for those involved in environmental cleanup. As for chemistry as a science, fundamental chemistry education has always been strong in East Europe and apparently has stayed so, even as opportunities to exploit chemical knowledge have been severely limited by largely political considerations. This C&EN Special Issue does not predict answers to the host of unknowns for chemical makers and for the chemical community involved in the pending efforts to convert six nations from the socialist to the free enterprise system—it is far too early for that. But it does provide a review of the starting point and of the initial steps of what will be a long and exciting process. Michael Heylin Editor
Views expressed on this page are those of the author only and not necessarily those of ACS
May 14, 1990 C&EN
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