ABSTRACT
The contemporary international environment can fully be understood only in the context of the Cold War international system from which it evolved and which helped form the contemporary world. Impacts of the Cold War on the present and future include the enormous influence the Cold War had on reforming the American attitude toward the world and the United States’ role in it; the influence the Cold War had on the worldview of the generations who presided over it, including many still in leadership roles; and the traumatic effect of the Cold War collapse on the international system and American attitudes toward it.
