THE AMERICAN STRATEGY THROUGHOUT THE COLD WAR
AND AFTER
PREFACE
The intent of this essay is concerned with the "American grand strategy in Europe and more broadly in the world, in the decades which followed the end of the Second World War up to the early nineteen's in the years following the collapse of the Berlin wall. What I would like to do is to review very briefly the history of America's policy toward Europe and more generally toward rest of the world from 1945 on, with the goal of seeing what bearing that story has on the problems we face today. Through my analysis I would like to enable the reader to better evaluate the current world political system and so to better evaluate the problems our nations are currently facing, would it be better for us to hold on this system where a "dominating role" is played by the American power, or should a fundamentally different sort of system be brought into being, a system in which the American role is far more limiteda system in which the United States is transformed from "hegemon" to "off-shore balancer"?
1 THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Just as the Second World War reached its end, the world was startled by the onset of a new war between the allied forces groups which have only joined together to defeat the "axis" troops, but who were, nonetheless, engaged in an irreconcilable ideological dispute. Two different and conflicting blocs emerged, one governed by the communist ideology and led by the USSR, while the other embraced the liberal ideology and followed the lead of the United States of America. The key to win such war would have been the use of nuclear weapons -similar to what happened in the Second World War when the U.S. used nuclear bombs against Japan- in which case the price of American victory would have been the annihilation of entire populations. In the aftermath of the Second World War none could approve of another war, no matter how justified it might be, not to mention an... [continues]
AND AFTER
PREFACE
The intent of this essay is concerned with the "American grand strategy in Europe and more broadly in the world, in the decades which followed the end of the Second World War up to the early nineteen's in the years following the collapse of the Berlin wall. What I would like to do is to review very briefly the history of America's policy toward Europe and more generally toward rest of the world from 1945 on, with the goal of seeing what bearing that story has on the problems we face today. Through my analysis I would like to enable the reader to better evaluate the current world political system and so to better evaluate the problems our nations are currently facing, would it be better for us to hold on this system where a "dominating role" is played by the American power, or should a fundamentally different sort of system be brought into being, a system in which the American role is far more limiteda system in which the United States is transformed from "hegemon" to "off-shore balancer"?
1 THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Just as the Second World War reached its end, the world was startled by the onset of a new war between the allied forces groups which have only joined together to defeat the "axis" troops, but who were, nonetheless, engaged in an irreconcilable ideological dispute. Two different and conflicting blocs emerged, one governed by the communist ideology and led by the USSR, while the other embraced the liberal ideology and followed the lead of the United States of America. The key to win such war would have been the use of nuclear weapons -similar to what happened in the Second World War when the U.S. used nuclear bombs against Japan- in which case the price of American victory would have been the annihilation of entire populations. In the aftermath of the Second World War none could approve of another war, no matter how justified it might be, not to mention an... [continues]
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