The difference now is the scope. The Cold War once limited American penetration to half the globe, and even there American ideas were challenged not only by the Kremlin but by neutralist governments, by Marxist academics or by state-controlled media. Now, with the Kremlin defeated, Marxists in disarray and communications leaping frontiers into satellite dishes around the globe, the competition simply has vanished. American ships prowl every ocean unchallenged. American markets and multinationals dominate the new global economy.
American lawyers write the laws in the Czech Republic.
American journalists advise newspapers in Kazakstan. American evangelical Protestants rally believers in countries like Russia, where Orthodox Christian's once reigned unchallenged, or in Roman Catholic Latin America. To some American leaders, U.S. power is virtually unlimited, and that's fine. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall.