ABSTRACT
The costs of war appear to be frighteningly high. Since the most impressive of large and complicated self-regulatory systems operate only within contrived orders, the effective management of the affairs of nations appears to be a crying need. The smaller the number of great powers, and the wider the disparities between the few most powerful states and the many others, the more likely the former are to act for the sake of the system and to participate in the management of lesser states. Managerial tasks are performed in both realms, but in markedly different ways. This difference causes the possibility of managing international affairs to be played down unduly. Despite the difficulties of international management, the United States has probably overmanaged the affairs of the world since World War II. The clarity with which dangers and duties are defined in a bipolar world easily leads the country that identifies its own security with the maintenance of world order to overreact.
