George Herbert Walker Bush: A Disorderly World

Abstract

Henriksen argues that the end of the Cold War removed the Soviet Union lodestone that orientated US foreign policy since 1945. The disorderly world opened the door for cycler international approaches. The impetus for engagement or disengagement came from the president in office. President Bush furthered re-engagement begun by Ronald Reagan, who assumed office in a disengagement cycle, stemming from the frustrating Vietnam War. While Reagan instituted forward policies, he was more circumspect than his rhetoric implied. Bush pushed successfully to remove the Red Army from Eastern Europe, reunite Germany, and admit it into North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He arm-twisted Britain, France, Germany, and Russia to achieve his goals. Bush invaded Panama and ousted its military ruler without incurring a substantial backlash at home or abroad.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Niccolò Machiavelli