ABSTRACT

Two basic shifts in the world situation reinforce these worries. One is the end of the Cold War, eliminating the Soviet threat that helped foster cohesion between Europe and the United States. The problem with American unipolar dominance is that it is a potential threat to other states if it is exercised in an arbitrary and exploitive way. Unilateral trade restrictions, such as the Helms-Burton and Super 301 legislation, are manifestations of what some see as the abusive use of American power. Even the birth of the Atlantic pact in April of 1949 had a positive vision behind it as reflected in British Foreign Minister Ernst Bevin's call in December 1948 for a "spiritual union" of the Western democracies. Behind the Western order is a distinctive - and pioneering - set of binding institutions that keep the exercise of power predictable and restrained.