ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War destroyed the containment standard for American intervention. The disappearance of the Soviet strategic threat, the changing structure of world power, the rising tide of nationalism and ethnic identity, the challenge of Islamic jihadism, the increased importance of world economics, and the prominence of relatively new foreign policy issues like the environment and drugs complicated the judgments that American leaders had to make about when US armed intervention was necessary or justified. The end of the Cold War had a major impact on US policy toward Asia as well as toward Latin America and the Middle East. It had a substantial effect on the few areas in Africa where the United States and the Soviet Union had thought their interests sufficiently involved to intervene. The primary effect of the end of the Cold War on Western Europe was the rise of nationalism there.
