Making the world safe for multipolarity

America's unipolar moment is over. Now, shaping a multipolar global order is the crucial, overarching foreign policy challenge for President-elect Barack Obama. In his Nov. 23 Times Op-Ed article, "Obama’s multipolar moment," A. Wess Mitchell convincingly argues for a "fundamental break from the post-Cold War U.S. strategic playbook" and, in particular, the Bush administration's blind efforts at global power projection. So far, so good.

By Thorsten Benner

December 3, 2008