Sustainable development as an organizing principle for US foreign policy: Opportunities and enduring constraints

摘要

The disintegration of the Soviet Union has dramatically changed the international topography. Bipolar international relations have given way to a multipolar world wherein the United States is the only true superpower as gauged by both economic and military might. The decline of the Soviet Union has removed an important stabilizing force in international politics and a critical organizing principle for American Foreign Policy -- namely, the containment of international communism. The Soviet Union's dismantlement has created opportunities for both cooperation and conflict. It means that increasingly cooperative relations between Russia and the United States have reduced the threat of nuclear war while intensifying regional political instability among present and former allies and former client states. Without the Soviet threat more resources are available to restore the nation's transportation, communications, and industrial infrastructure, clean up the environment, and to develop technologies that promise to increase US economic competitiveness while minimizing environmental impacts. Internationally, there should be additional resources to promote international economic growth, to preserve natural environments, and to build democratic institutions in developing nations.