ABSTRACT
This chapter peers into the future and contemplate the nature of the world order, or disorder, that American foreign policymakers will need to make sense of in the near term, and how they might attempt to reconcile American national interests with larger global interests. Gar Alperovitz envisions a "decentralization of power" that "could easily shake up America's fundamental political structure" and have far-reaching implications for American foreign policy. One hopes US foreign policymakers decide to take actions that are legal and moral; above all, one hopes they are wise. It would seem reasonable that any vision of the United States' role in a post—Cold War world might start with a commitment to a new multilateralism that would attempt to reconcile the competing views of neoconservatives, liberal internationalists, and realists. It is said that a pessimist is an optimist with experience. That seems unduly cynical. True, another 9/11, or something still worse, could befall the United States homeland.
