Several US presidents have proclaimed a new world order. Today most of us remember only the one that George HW Bush called for at the end of the cold war. “That new world order is struggling to be born — a world quite different to the one we’ve known,” said Bush Senior in 1990. Minus the Soviet Union, it was in fact roughly the same one we had known for the previous half-century. With a few ups and downs, Pax Americana held for about another decade.
歷史上,多位美國總統都宣告過新世界秩序的到來。但如今,我們大多數人只能記得老布希(George HW Bush)在冷戰結束時呼籲的新世界秩序。1990年,老布希稱:「新的世界秩序正在艱難形成——一個與我們瞭解的世界完全不同的世界。」除了沒有蘇聯,這個新世界秩序實際上和我們在之前半個世紀知曉的世界幾乎一樣。幾經興衰,美國治下的和平(Pax Americana)又維持了大概10年。