Making the Unipolar Moment

In the late 1970s, the United States often seemed to be a superpower in decline. Battered by crises and setbacks around the globe, its post-World War II international leadership appeared to be draining steadily away. Yet just over a decade later, by the early 1990s, America's global primacy had been reasserted in dramatic fashion. The Cold War had ended with Washington and its allies triumphant; democracy and free markets were spreading like never before. The United States was now enjoying its "unipolar moment"-an era in which Washington faced no near-term rivals for global power and influence, and one in which the defining feature of international politics was American dominance. How did this remarkable turnaround occur, and what role did U.S. foreign policy play in causing it? In this important book, Hal Brands uses recently declassified archival materials to tell the story of American resurgence.

Introduction: Structure, Strategy, and American Resurgence1. Roots of Resurgence2. The Reagan Offensive and the Transformation of the Cold War3. American Statecraft and the Democratic Revolution4. Toward the Neoliberal Order5. Structure versus Strategy in the Greater Middle East6. The Dawn of the Unipolar MomentConclusion: Understanding the Arc of American Power