ABSTRACT
The United States of America led the coalition that won the third great war of the twentieth century, the cold war, as it had led the coalitions that had won the first two great wars of the century. It carried the West and the global concert to a victory over the Communist system that had seized the Soviet Union and many other states and governments. American politicians and commentators, as well as the people at large, can find little justification for an active American foreign policy. President George Bush's call for a "new world order" may have aroused some interest when it was first uttered in connection with the Gulf War, but the concept has never been fully articulated and debated in the American political process. The American government wants to have friends and allies to help maintain the global concert and to help share in the protection of American and other Western interests.
