A New World and Its Troubles
Article Summary and Author Biography
World politics in the post-Cold War era will be dominated by economic, rather than military disputes, and traditional US 'laissez-faire' foreign policy will not work to resolve the probable sources of economic tension and conflict (environmental degradation, demographic pressures, famines and epidemics etc). The three major economic powers (USA, Japan, Germany), plus the USSR and (perhaps) China, should form a central steering group, with latitude for regional powers to form comparable groups at regional level.
Stanley Hoffmann is Professor of Government, Harvard University. This article is adapted from the author's essay in Sea-Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed, published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
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