America's New Course

William G. Hyland

From Foreign Affairs, Spring 1990

Summary:  Analysis of the USA's post-Cold War security interests, seeing a decline in military and ideological issues, and growth of interest in trade and economic policy, the environment, terrorism and drug trafficking. FA editor.

William G. Hyland is Editor of Foreign Affairs.

12 See William T. Kaufmann, "A Plan to Cut Military Spending in Half," The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1990. See also "$150 Billion a Year, Where to Find It," editorial in The New York Times, March 8, 1990, p. 24.

13 See "The Japan That Can Say No," by Akio Morita and Shintaro Ishihara, as quoted in The Congressional Record, Nov. 13, 1989, remarks by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

14 The total foreign aid request for FY 1990 is $20.9 billion, an increase of 8.9 percent. The Bush administration, after the Nicaraguan elections, announced plans for a "significant and meaningful" aid package for Nicaragua; others questioned the U.S. ability to supply large funds. The administration estimated the costs of economic recovery in Panama at $1 billion; thus far in FY 1990, it has requested $500 million in supplemental economic support funds for Panama. See the symposia on "New Institutions for Developing Country Debt" appearing in the Winter 1990 issue of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, pp. 3-56.

15 For a prescient analysis of the possibilities for postrevolutionary Russia, see George F. Kennan, "America and the Russian Future," Foreign Affairs, April 1951, excerpts reprinted in Foreign Affairs, Spring 1990. Also see James H. Billington, "Looking to the Past," The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 1990, p. 11.