This is an amazing three part series. All three parts are linked below.
When the Cold War ended, America stood at a cross roads. Many hailed the resultant “peace dividend”. The notion was that with the end of high defense spending during the Cold War, we could use that money for other internal purposes (of course no politician put forth the notion of giving the money back to the taxpayers).
Aside from economic changes, the US faced no major military threats for the first time in a long time. What an opportunity.
Of course the opportunity was turned into America becoming an empire, just like the old British empire. It’s ending the same way.
We had a long period where we could impose our way pretty much at will. In the absence of an economic or military adversary, we become the bullies of the world. Then Russia and China caught up.
We stood a good chance of becoming one of the three “super powers”, sharing influence with the Russians and the Chinese. Right now we face the very real possibility of falling behind China and Russia.