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The State of the World: Explaining U.S. Strategy
The
fall of the Soviet Union ended the European epoch, the period in which
European power dominated the world. It left the United States as the
only global power , something for which it was culturally and
institutionally unprepared. Since the end of World War II, the United
States had defined its foreign policy in terms of its confrontation with
the Soviet Union. Virtually everything it did around the world in some
fashion related to this confrontation. The fall of the Soviet Union
simultaneously freed the United States from a dangerous confrontation
and eliminated the focus of its foreign policy.
In the course of a century, the United States had gone from marginal to world power. It had waged war or Cold War from 1917 until 1991, with roughly 20 years of peace between the two wars dominated by the Great Depression and numerous interventions in Latin America. Accordingly, the 20th century was a time of conflict and crisis for the United States. It entered the century without well-developed governmental institutions for managing its foreign policy. It built its foreign policy apparatus to deal with war and the threat of war; the sudden absence of an adversary inevitably left the United States off balance. Read More »
Comments? Send them to feedback@stratfor.com
In the course of a century, the United States had gone from marginal to world power. It had waged war or Cold War from 1917 until 1991, with roughly 20 years of peace between the two wars dominated by the Great Depression and numerous interventions in Latin America. Accordingly, the 20th century was a time of conflict and crisis for the United States. It entered the century without well-developed governmental institutions for managing its foreign policy. It built its foreign policy apparatus to deal with war and the threat of war; the sudden absence of an adversary inevitably left the United States off balance. Read More »
Comments? Send them to feedback@stratfor.com
