ABSTRACT
Far from being a new idea, Bush's new world order concept built upon principles that had long found support in US foreign policy. Specifically, there was a continued emphasis on the rule of law and the maintenance of order as a way of promoting freedom. At the beginning of 1992, then, US foreign policy makers had a considerable dilemma: how best to achieve the new world order, but to do so with minimal resources, as the Bush administration's foreign policy triage strategy demanded. In many ways Somalia fit the challenges US foreign policy makers envisioned in the new world order. That is, in a world where the United States was the only superpower, threats would come from middle and small powers, like Somalia, and not from politically and ideologically hostile adversaries of comparable strength. To minimise Clinton's vulnerability in a foreign commitment inherited from his predecessor, the new administration quickly set about trying to distance itself from the Somalia operation.
