This 5 page paper discusses the book by Joseph Nye, The American Paradox. Multilateralism versus unilateralism are argued as well as soft and hard power. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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movies, the Lone Ranger, the Fugitive. John Wayne was idolized because he stood alone against the bad guys. In many respects, American never grew out of that image for itself,
never saw itself as a team player. Given this attitude, then, Joseph Nyes book brings up the very real question of whether or not the United States can continue for
any length of time acting alone for the rest of the world. When one looks back at past history one can see where this attitude of self reliance came from.
Not only did Americans bring it with them when they immigrated to this country, but they developed the attitude after the onset and successful win in World War I. America,
in short, was cocky and full of itself in a purely teenaged way. However, this national teenager had the ability to back up its theories. George Kennan did not see
the Soviet Union as a threat militarily, but politically. To that end, he supported measures which advocated intense economic assistance which would allow for a deliberate infiltration of all things
American into the communist held nation. What was finally adopted by Truman was a version of Kennans strategy which included a building up of military defensive postures by the United
States as well as increased saturation of the Soviet Union with propaganda and goods. In other words: containment. This idea of containment continued throughout the next century, shaping the
United States into a global Lone Ranger, able to see to it that none of the bad guys won. But, in the end, though it had a past history of
working with other powers, in the end, the United States was a powerful loner. Perhaps this came about because it was not geographically linked to Europe and as such had