University of Virginia Library

Inequality In Relations

If American experience in
world politics has been one of
polarity, it has also been one of
inequality. It is a fact that the
only dialogue with equals that
the United States has had since
World War II has been with its
adversary in a bipolar struggle.
The polarized character of
international politics which
dominated most of the period
of American political
involvement and, after World
War II, its clear leadership
position among its allies, have
meant that the complex give
and take among relative equals
in more moderate periods of
international relations is largely
foreign to its experience.

In a very real sense, the
Soviet threat and the
challenges of European
reconstruction largely
sustained the American sense
of destiny, its propensity to
conceive conflict as polar, and
its tendency to apply economic
and engineering techniques to
political problems.