ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates the basic argument for the decline of great-power war and an analysis of what the new world means, and discusses the implications for when and why the US should resort to the use of force. Even countries that remain at peace with each other for prolonged periods often think about and plan for war with one another. The Cold War fear of the USSR compounded the inherently difficult problem of maintaining a sense of proportion in the problems people now face. As many commentators have observed, much is new in international politics since the end of the Cold War. Contrary to the view of Kenneth Waltz and others who see the anarchic structure of international politics as both unchanging and establishing the most important patterns of international life, even without a world government momentous changes can and have occurred.
