Estrangement: America and the World

Abstract

'The United States is estranged from the world - separate, aloof, more alone than even the most cynical or pessimistic observers might have predicted in the heyday of American postwar power', writes Sanford Ungar. In this provocative volume he and eleven other distinguished observers explore the complex and troubling reasons for that estrangement. The US emerged from World War II with a unique position and an unusual role in the world. Rarely in history had a single nation enjoyed so much prerogative and influence, and the US was confident that it could lead like-minded nations in the construction of a lasting framework of peace and friendly competition. But in the decades that followed, America's sense of its proper place in the world and its belief in the attainability of peace and prosperity have both been severely challenged. The seemingly inevitable development of diplomatic tension and nuclear arms competition with the Soviet Union, the ideological hostility of so many of the new and 'non-aligned' nations, the threatening economic competition of allies - all have contributed to America's sense of aloneness in the world.