AMERICA'S CHANGING STRATEGIC INTERESTS

This article examines the significant changes in America's strategic interests following the end of the Cold War. It analyzes the shift from a singular focus on containing the Soviet Union to a more complex and multifaceted set of interests in the new global environment. The study explores the key pillars of the new US strategy, including the promotion of democracy and market economies, the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the management of regional conflicts. The research assesses the debate within the US foreign policy establishment between internationalism and neo-isolationism. The paper argues that while the nature of the threats had changed, the United States remained committed to a global leadership role, albeit one that was increasingly defined by economic interests and the management of new security challenges. The analysis concludes by evaluating how this strategic reorientation was shaping US policy towards various regions of the world.

The collapse of the Soviet Union created a "unipolar moment" and forced a fundamental rethinking of American strategic interests. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of this transformation. The study begins by contrasting the clarity and coherence of the Cold War strategy of containment with the more fluid and ambiguous strategic landscape of the 1990s. The core of the article is an examination of the new set of interests that came to define US foreign policy under the Clinton administration. This includes the doctrine of "enlargement" of the community of market democracies, which is analyzed as the successor to containment. The paper also delves into the growing focus on "new security threats," such as international terrorism, drug trafficking, and the proliferation of WMD to "rogue states." A significant part of the study is dedicated to the increasing primacy of geo-economics. It explores how issues like promoting free trade, ensuring access to energy resources, and maintaining American technological competitiveness became central components of national security. The findings suggest that US strategic interests were becoming broader, more complex, and more intertwined with economic considerations than ever before. The paper concludes that this period was a defining one, in which the United States sought to establish the principles and priorities that would guide its global leadership in the 21st century.