ABSTRACT
Bill Clinton was elected president on the promise to "change" the United States, but the rapid, profound, multi-directional, and often mysterious changes in the rest of the world threaten to cripple his presidency. The greatest foreign policy challenge for Clinton came in Bosnia—the problem from hell, as Secretary of State Warren Christopher called it. Clinton's national security policy has been mostly reactive and incoherent. The multiple wars on the territory of the former Soviet Union, largely driven by economic distress and ethnic politics, imperil the economic future and stability of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Within the borders of a nation-state, at least within militarily powerful, advanced industrial nations, the state could provide economic stability, development, and social progress. The idea that the United States is in the business of spreading democracy was a keystone of Cold War propaganda, even when Cold War policy required the unswerving support of anti-Communist dictators.
