Kerry and BCCI Revisited

document argues persuasively that our alliances with Western Europe and Japan are essential both to maintain the balance of power, and to diminish any incentive for those powerful friends to pursue a superpower status of their own. A world dominated by a single superpower will be more stable than one divided, like Gaul, into three parts.

Most of this is unexceptionable as a description of the potential problems that a serious national-security policy will protect against. Just as George Kennan’s famous “X” article in Foreign Affairs in 1947 articulated the idea of “containment” that guided U.S. policy for decades, this document reflects some serious thinking about a new era. Some of the language is too self-congratulatory; some of it might be phrased more diplomatically. But it is—no secret—the blueprint for a Pax Americana.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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document argues persuasively that our alliances with Western Europe and Japan are essential both to maintain the balance of power, and to diminish any incentive for those powerful friends to pursue a superpower status of their own. A world dominated by a single superpower will be more stable than one divided, like Gaul, into three parts.

Most of this is unexceptionable as a description of the potential problems that a serious national-security policy will protect against. Just as George Kennan’s famous “X” article in Foreign Affairs in 1947 articulated the idea of “containment” that guided U.S. policy for decades, this document reflects some serious thinking about a new era. Some of the language is too self-congratulatory; some of it might be phrased more diplomatically. But it is—no secret—the blueprint for a Pax Americana.