Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

66 SPECIALPROYlDENCE

EuropeandJapansawtheirfortunesimproveastheyadoptedelementsof
traditionalAmericanforeignpolicy,theforeignpolicyideasoftheSoviet
Union, WilhelminePrussia, andMetternich's Austriawouldrise to
powerintheUnitedStates.

ContinentalRealismandtheColdWar

TheworldoftheColdWarwaspropitiousfortheEuropeanstrategic

ideasthatwaftedintotheUnitedStatesinthesecondhalfofthetwenti-

ethcentury.TheinternationalenvironmentfacedbytheUnitedStates

duringtheColdWarlookedinmanywaysliketheworldfacedbyBis-

marckandMetternich.ThecompetitionbetweentheUnitedStatesand

theSovietUnioncouldeasilybeconstruedasa twentieth-centuryanalog

oftheoldstrugglesforthemasteryofEurope.True,thecompetitionwas

ona globalscale,ratherthanthelocalscaleofEuropeanpolitics,but

timeanddistancehadshrunk.TheUnitedStatesandtheSovietUnion

wereinmanywaysbacktothescorpions-in-a-bottlestruggleofEuro-

peanpolitics,

MoreovertheeconomicdimensionsoftheU.S.-Sovietcompetition,

whilebasicandultimatelydecisive,tendedtodisappearfromviewfor

longperiodsoftime.Inreality,withtheWesternEuropeanandJapa-

neseeconomicrevivalsofthe1950s-asuccessmadepossiblelargelyby

theworldeconomicorderinitiativesofAmericanforeignpolicyinthe

I94os-theSovietUnion'sthreattotheWestsharplydiminished.Money

trumpedMarx;communismhadlittleappealinanincreasinglyaffluent

West.

Economicsagainvisiblydroveinternationalpoliticsinthewaning

yearsofSovietpower.TheCommunistregimeultimatelycrumbledasits

increasingeconomicshortcomings,includingitsabilitytomatchWest-

erntechnologicaladvances,underminedthelegitimacyofitssocialorder

evenintheeyesoftheCommunisteliteandincreasinglyputthecostsof

militaryparitywiththeUnitedStatesoutofreach.

Thesedecisiveeconomicdevelopmentsoccupiedthecenterofpolicy-,!

makers'attentiononlyintheopeningandclosingphasesoftheCold

War,Duringthelongmiddlepassagesoftheforty-yearrivalry,attention

largelyfocusedonthemilitaryandpoliticalaspectsoftherivalry,andfor

these questions,Continental realism seemed to providean adequate

inte'llecrualandpoliticalframework.