Third Try at World Order? America and Multilateralism after the Cold War

Times of change are also times of confusion. Words lose their familiar meaning, and our footing becomes unsure on what was previously firm terrain. Today, political leaders and commentators alike seek to grasp the new international role of the United States. Now is the unipolar moment, a triumphalist commentator crows. There is but one first-rate power and no prospect in the immediate future of any power to rival it.' But a senior U.S. foreign policy official demurs: simply don't have the leverage, we don't have the influence, the inclination to use military force. We don't have the money to bring to bear the kind of pressure that will produce positive results any time soon.2 On Sunday morning talk shows Beltway pundits repeat, as if chanting a mantra, that it is necessary for this country to articulate a new set of interests that are deemed vital and sufficiently compelling to mobilize the country behind sustained foreign policy