Out in the Cold

Back to the weighty and political.

In the interest of deferring to much smarter writers regarding the question of how the Western world, specifically the U.S., should use its power internationally, I want to link to this article by Slate's Fred Kaplan. 

The first couple of paragraphs lay out an interesting - and, it seems to me, pretty sensible - theory about why the U.S. has had such difficulty with its military missions since the fall of the Soviet Union. The gist of it is that, by winning the Cold War, America actually became a weaker player on the international stage, because the old bi-polar geopolitical system - where nations had to line up behind either the U.S. or the Soviets - made it easier to rally allies. 

Bush used to be fond of saying "you're either with us or against us" when talking about his "war on terror." But now, more than ever, individual countries don't have to make such a stark choice.