American Leadership Potential in the Post-Cold War World

For roughly fifty years since the end of World War II the United States, has provided global leadership to the West and western-aligned nations of the world. The enabling factors of this leadership were direct results of the war. These factors included the political and economic ruin of Europe and Asia, the overwhelming industrial/economic strength and political stability of the U. S. relative to the rest of the world and the need for a U.S. economic, political and military umbrella in the face of an ideologically antithetical and militarily potent Soviet Union. In short, the U.S. has led the western world because it possessed the resources and interest to do so and because of the western perception of a common threat. However, with the demise of communism as a viable ideology and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, critics of the American leadership role are speaking with an increasingly loud, if not unified, voice. What then should be the role of the United States at the turn of the 21st century? The premise of this paper is that it is in the United States' interest, and indeed the world's, for America to pursue the leadership role. United States' leadership of the post-Cold War world is not, however, an inevitability. The questions that must be answered are therefore twofold. First, is America in decline, will it have the power resources to lead? Second, what is the developing structure of the world order and is it conducive to U.S. leadership