by Bill O’Grady

In this third installment of our four-part series on The New World Order, we will examine how policymakers coped with the new superpower role.  First, we will examine how policymakers attempted to resolve the tensions created between the desires of its domestic constituencies and foreign superpower obligations.  There are going to be periods when the requirements of the hegemon role adversely affect segments of society within the superpower.  The political class must navigate these divergences in such a way so as to keep domestic tranquility and fulfill its foreign obligations.  We will offer a history of how the U.S. managed these differences, with an analysis of Roosevelt’s political configuration and how the Reagan Revolution adjusted to the failures of the first program.  Second, we will detail these periods with charts.  Third, we will explain the capability and willingness of the U.S. to continue providing the global public goods to the world.

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