Writing about the French Revolution, Edmund Burke suggested that the state that cannot change will not survive. As I write this, at the end of 1989, it is evident that for many people the world is changing at a great pace, and that some states may not survive. There can be no doubt that 1989 will appear in history books as a year to be remembered, a year to be weighed alongside 1789, 1914, 1939 and so on. There is a sense that we are living through a momentous time in history. For those of us too young to remember 1939 or 1945, let alone 1914, this is the first experience of enormous upheaval. The map of Europe, East and West, appears to be changing every day.

With the established order, in Eastern Europe at least, disintegrating so rapidly, writing anything is a risky business, particularly for a journal such as Australian Child and Family Welfare where lead times are long and labour is voluntary. Much of what is written at the end of 1989 may appear irrelevant at best, in 1990.