PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Journal: Yale University Press eBooks
Year: 2019

Great-power rivalry is a normal and regular occurrence in world history but it is not normal or regular in recent times. The two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall were an anomalous period of unprecedented international cooperation. There were disagreements and crises, especially in the Middle East, but Russia, China, and other nations seemed to accept the U.S.-led international order. Some non-Western nations even appeared to be converging with it. In the West itself, the order was expan