Such was the extent of the United States’ dominance in the arena of military capability overudthe last two decades that discussion of others’ capacity to rival it largely disappeared fromudmainstream discussion. Though the US was probably the world’s foremost military power evenudduring the Cold War, there was still scope for anxious public debate in the 1950s and 1970s ofudimagined ‘missile gaps’, i.e. a Soviet advantage in advanced delivery technology for nuclearudweapons. In 1990-91, however, two events occurred in quick succession which inaugurated anudera of total American pre-eminence. First, the United States trounced Iraq, previously considereduda military force of at least credible middle-ranking standing, in the Gulf War, displaying inudthe process the fruits of many years of investment in advanced battlefield technology. ThenudCommunism stumbled and the Soviet Union fell apart, ushering in a wave of economicuddysfunction and military wastage from which the Russian state has never fully recovered.
展开▼
