Ethics & International Affairs Volume 3 (1989): Articles: The American Problem [Abstract]

Dec 2, 1989

While the world enjoys a post-WWII Pax Americana, American foreign policy faces a curious dilemma: how to adjust to its own success in the ever-changing political climate. According to Calleo, the United States "has been driven to manipulate its finances in a fashion that increasingly harms the American economy and threatens the liberal world economy." Placing little confidence in the endurance of NATO in the post-cold-war era, the author urges the United States to "become the ally of its allies rather than their managing protector," as it has been historically, leaving Europe to take responsibility for its own security. Calleo argues that American and European interests can only grow more divergent with time; hence "the best antidote to European free-riding is American devolution."

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