With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, can the security of the United States be protected by reducing its involvement in international affairs? In this authoritative book, one of the world's leading political analysts and policy makers offers an emphatic and Wilsonian "No." Basing his argument on a lively review of the diplomatic experience of the United States and of the prospects for world politics, Eugene V. Rostow contends that the most vital security interest of the nation is in the effective functioning of the state system as a system of peace. To achieve this goal, the state system must be based on a favorable balance of power, and it must be managed by the major powers, or a decisive number of them, in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

Rostow shows that except for the disastrous interlude between the two world wars, the United States has always played an active role in world affairs, first as a target state under the protection of Great Britain, and later as a leading participant. The lesson of America's international experience, Rostow finds, is that the moral goal of American foreign policy is the achievement and maintenance of peace, not a universal crusade for democracy and human rights. The United States, he says, is an indispensable leader in that effort.