New eras in American foreign policy have begun in two different ways: suddenly and gradually. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, changed America’s role in the world in an instant. The events that turned the World War II alliance with the Soviet Union into the Cold-War confrontation that lasted for four decades, by contrast, took place over a period of several years.The latest transformation has elements of both. The disintegration of the post-Cold War peace has been underway for the better part of a decade, since the great economic crisis of 2008, but …read more
Source: The American Interest
