THE POST– COLD WAR WORLD ★^1073Throughout Latin America and Africa, civil-
ian governments replaced military rule.
The sudden shift from a bipolar world to
one of unquestioned American predominance
promised to redefine the country’s global role.
President George H. W. Bush spoke of the com-
ing of a new world order. But no one knew
what its characteristics would be and what
new challenges to American power might
arise.
THE POST– COLD WAR WORLD
A New World Order?
Bush’s first major foreign policy action was a
throwback to the days of American interven-
tionism in the Western Hemisphere. At the
end of 1989, he dispatched troops to Panama
to overthrow the government of General
Manuel Antonio Noriega, a former ally of
the United States who had become involved
in the international drug trade. The United
States installed a new government and flew
Noriega to Florida, where he was tried and
convicted on drug charges.
The Gulf War
A far more serious crisis arose in 1990 when
Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait, an oil-
rich sheikdom on the Persian Gulf. Fearing
that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein might
next attack Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally
that supplied more oil to the United States
than any other country, Bush rushed troops
to defend Kuwait and warned Iraq to with-
draw from the country or face war. His policy
aroused intense debate in the United States.
But the Iraqi invasion so flagrantly violated
- CHRONOLOGY •
1989 Communism falls in eastern
Europe
U.S.-led Panamanian coup
1990 Americans with
Disabilities Act
Germany reunifies
1991 Gulf War
Dissolution of the Soviet
Union
1992 Los Angeles riots
Casey v. Planned Parent-
hood of Pennsylvania
Clinton elected president
1993 Israel and Palestine Liber-
ation Organization sign the
Oslo Accords
North American Free Trade
Agreement approved
1994 Republicans win Congress;
Contract with America
Rwandan genocide
1995 Oklahoma City federal
building bombed
1996 Clinton eliminates Aid to
Families with Dependent
Children
Defense of Marriage Act
1998– Clinton impeachment
1989 proceedings
Kosovo War
1999 Protests in Seattle
against the World Trade
Organization
Glass- Steagall Act
repealed
2000 Bush v. Gore
2001 9/11 attacks- •
What were the major international initiatives of the Clinton administration
in the aftermath of the Cold War?