ABSTRACT
At the close of the twentieth century, the United States enjoyed unrivaled power in the world that some called the American ‘unipolar moment.’ The justifications of the Bush administration for waging renewed war on Iraq—the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the threat that Saddam Hussein allegedly posed to the United States—were much less clear-cut and compelling than those that justified the war in Afghanistan. Since the end of the Cold War, the American military, like the United States that it serves, has struggled to find a clear and pressing role in the world. The 1990s had offered a confusing mix of messages as to likely roles for the armed forces: peacekeeping, counterterrorism, the front line of the drug wars in Central and South America; none of these roles accorded with the military’s own view of its traditional and expected role in national security. The American military has evolved, dramatically, from what was initially intended.
