From Berlin to Baghdad: America's Search for Purpose in the Post-cold War World

425 Pages·2008·2.22 MB·English

by  Hal Brands

From Berlin to Baghdad
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From Berlin
to Baghdad
America’s Search for
Purpose in the
Post–Cold War World
Hal Brands
The University Press of Kentucky
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2008 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brands, Hal, 1983–
From Berlin to Baghdad : America’s search for purpose in the post–Cold War
world / Hal Brands.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-2462-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. United States—Foreign relations—1989– 2. World politics—1989–
3. War on Terrorism, 2001– I. Title.
JZ1480.B645 2007
327.73—dc22 2007030936
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
Contents
List of Abbreviations vi
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1. Beyond the Cold War? 8
2. Peace Elusive 39
3. The Search for Order 74
4. The Successor to Containment 101
5. Unmaking Enlargement 128
6. Whither Foreign Policy? 159
7. Post–Bumper Sticker Diplomacy 198
8. The Politics of Foreign Policy 231
9. Full Circle 263
10. Waging the War on Terror 302
Conclusion 335
Notes 341
Bibliography 389
Index 411
Abbreviations
ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile (Treaty)
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
CFE Conventional Forces in Europe
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CTBT Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
CWIHP Cold War International History Project
FDCH Federal Document Clearing House
FOIA Freedom of Information Act
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GDR German Democratic Republic
ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile
ICC International Criminal Court
INF Intermediate Nuclear Forces (Treaty)
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
MFN most favored nation
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NMD national missile defense
NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty
NSA National Security Archive
NSC National Security Council
NSD National Security Directive
NSPD National Security Presidential Directive
NSS National Security Strategy
OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
PDD Presidential Decision Directive
PDF Panama Defense Forces
Abbreviations
PFP Partnership for Peace
PLO Palestine Liberation Organization
PNTS permanent normal trade status
RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front
START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
TMD theater missile defense
UN United Nations
UNISOM UN Mission for Somalia
UNITAF UN Task Force
WMD weapons of mass destruction
WTO World Trade Organization
vii
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the staffs of the Hoover Institution, the Library
of Congress, the National Security Archive, and the George Bush Presi-
dential Library (Debbie Wheeler in particular) for their help in locat-
ing many of the documents cited in this book. Thanks also to the
Undergraduate Research Office at Stanford and the International Se-
curity Studies program at Yale, both of which subsidized my research,
and to Anthony Lake for permission to view his papers.
John Gaddis and Barton Bernstein helped me formulate and re-
work some of the ideas that went into this book. Stephen Metz and an
anonymous reader for the University Press of Kentucky offered valu-
able comments on the manuscript. Steve Wrinn and Anne Dean Wat-
kins shepherded the book through the review process. A special
thank-you goes to my dad, for his encouragement and willingness to
serve as a sounding board.
Introduction
“We have found our mission and our moment,” said George
W. Bush on September 20, 2001.1 Although Bush was re-
ferring to the launching of a global “war on terror,” his words also
signaled that the decade of incoherence known vaguely as the post–
Cold War era was at a close. As the president identified a monolithic
enemy and defined the next great calling of U.S. foreign policy, he
declared an end to a twelve-year period that had been notable mainly
for its lack of a diplomatic paradigm such as Bush now proposed. At
the dawn of a new millennium, the president stated, the United States
had once again located its purpose in international affairs.
The present volume treats the period between 1989 and 2006,
exploring the ways in which the disappearance of the Cold War mod-
el of U.S. diplomacy affected the development of policy during those
years. While much has been written on certain aspects of U.S. secu-
rity strategy during the 1990s and beyond,2 comprehensive studies of
the period are scarce.3 Accordingly, this book serves two purposes.
First, it presents an account of U.S. foreign policy that, though not
exhaustive, comes closer to being a full and critical examination of
the relevant issues than is available elsewhere.4 Second, it offers an
interpretation of U.S. diplomacy that places the various events of the
period in the broader context of the transition from Cold War to
post–Cold War to war on terror.
As this study makes clear, much of this span (1989–2001) was
more remarkable for what it was not (the Cold War) than for what it
was (no one was really sure). During this period, the United States’
interaction with the world lacked the defining peril and mission that
1