The End of History: How Americans Won the Cold War

This chapter examines how the end of the Cold War transformed both the international position of the United States and Americans’ understanding of their national mission. The collapse of the Soviet Union removed the principal ideological adversary that had long structured American foreign policy and national identity. In the 1990s, the United States appeared as the world’s sole superpower, and American elites increasingly framed global politics through the language of triumphalism, democratization, and the “end of history.” At the same time, the absence of a clear rival complicated the exercise of American leadership and intensified debates about the country’s global responsibilities. The War on Terror, renewed tensions with Russia, and the rise of China each provided new frameworks through which Americans interpreted international politics. The chapter argues that the search for a new constitutive “Other” became central to the redefinition of America’s global role after the Cold War.