The Duplicity of the Ideologues
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/duplicity-ideologues Andrew J. Bacevich June 4, 2014 - 3:19pm “Almost 70 years ago, a new world order was born from the rubble of World War II, built by and around the power of the United States.” Yet today, Robert Kagan laments, “that world order shows signs of cracking, and perhaps even collapsing.” Wherever he looks, Kagan sees evidence that “something is changing, and perhaps more quickly than we may imagine,” he writes in the New Republic ( “Superpowers Don’t Get to Retire” ). Indeed, “the signs of the global order breaking down are all around us.” These changes “signal a transition into a different world order,” one bearing troubling similarities to the 1930s. The origins of this prospective calamity are plain to see. Don’t bother to look for material explanations. “If a breakdown in the world order that America made is occurring,” Kagan writes, “it is not because America’s power is declining.” The United States has power...