Bill Clinton's Lost World

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But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the absence of a clearly defined enemy led to a certain unraveling of the Cold War political culture. Indeed, President Bush may have won the consent of governments from Moscow and Paris to Damascus and Cairo for the 1991 Gulf War, but he struggled to get a majority behind it on Capitol Hill.

Without the specter of a global communist foe, Americas legislators are increasingly less inclined to accept the Presidents word that U.S. troops are needed on far-off battlefields. Not only that, theyre increasingly reluctant to give the President a free hand in making foreign policy. By denying Mr. Clinton the right to negotiate "fast track" trade agreements, Congress may have put the kibosh on trade pacts with Chile and other emerging economies in Latin America. Without "fast track," which allowed Congress to vote simply yea or nay on a trade pact, a legislature riddled with special interests can dismember a trade pact line by line. And foreign governments are less inclined to negotiate deals with a president who may be unable to keep his end of the deal. Last Wednesdays vote may have a similar impact on future security treaties.

Whether the cause has been his own personal failings, or the rise of an ideologically driven conservatism in the GOP, or simply the foreign policy vacuum created by the end of the Cold War, Bill Clinton has presided over a diluting of the authority of the presidency over Washingtons relations with the wider world. Which makes it less certain that the century that is about to dawn will be another American one.

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