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

ChapterEight

THE RISE AND

RETREAT OFTHE

NEWWORLD

ORDER

W

iththeendoftheColdWar,thefourtraditionalschoolshave
becomemorerelevantthanever.TheColdWarwasa longera
ofrelativestability,bothinworldpoliticsgenerallyandinthepoliticsof
theAmericanforeignpolicydebate.Whilemajorchangestookplace
duringthefortyyearsbetween 1949 and1989,includingthefinalcol-
lapseoftheEuropeanempiresandtheemergenceofnewlyindependent
statesaroundtheworld,thestructureofworldpoliticschangedonly
sk>wly.ThedefectionofYugoslaviafromtheSovietcampwasvirtually
theonlychangeinEuropeanpowerpoliticsbetweentheBerlinairliftof
1948 andthefalloftheBerlinWall.
Duringthislongperiodofstasis,thepoliticsofAmericanforeign
policyalsochangedrelativelylittle.WithintheUnitedStatestheele-
mentsofthebroad-consensusColdWarcoalitiondisagreedoverpar-
ticularpoliciesandstrategies,butgenerallyagreed thatinternational
Communism,ledbytheSovietUnion,constituteda fundamentalthreat
tothevitalinterests,eventhesurvival,oftheUnitedStates,andthata
policyofglobalcontainmentwasthebestmeansofmeetingthechal-
lenge.ColdWarhawkssometimeschallengedthecontainmentstrategy
asdefensiveanddefeatist,callingfor"rollback"ratherthancontainment.