Chapter 27 The Post-Cold War World

Chapter 27 Outline The Post-Cold War World - A New World Order? ¥ George H. W. Bush's Þrst major foreign policy action was the overthrow of General Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama. - The Gulf War ¥ Bush intervened when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. ¥ The Gulf War was the Þrst postÐCold War international crisis. - Visions of America's Role ¥ Bush identiÞed the Gulf War as the Þrst step in the struggle to create a world based on democracy and global free trade. - The Election of Clinton ¥ The economy slipped into recession in 1991, and Bill Clinton took advantage to win the election. - A charismatic campaigner, Clinton conveyed sincere concern for voters' economic anxieties. ¥ A third candidate, the eccentric Texas billionaire Ross Perot, also entered the fray. - Clinton in OfÞce ¥ During his Þrst two years in ofÞce, Clinton turned away from some of the social and economic policies of the Reagan and Bush years. ¥ Clinton shared his predecessor's passion for free trade. - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ¥ The major policy initiative of Clinton's Þrst term was a plan to address the rising cost of health care and the increasing number of Americans who lacked health insurance. - The plan would have provided universal coverage through large groupings of organizations like the health maintenance organizations (HMOs). - It was attacked by doctors, health insurance companies, and drug companies. - The "Freedom Revolution" ¥ In 1994, for the Þrst time since the 1950s, Republicans won control of both houses of Congress. - Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America ¥ Viewing their electoral triumph as an endorsement of the contract, Republicans moved swiftly to implement its provisions. - Clinton's Political Strategy ¥ Clinton rebuilt his popularity by campaigning against a radical Congress. ¥ Clinton signed into law a Republican bill that abolished the program of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). 1 ¥ Triangulation meant that Clinton embraced the most popular Republican policies, such as welfare reform, while leaving his opponents with extreme positions unpopular among suburban middle-class voters, such as hostility to abortion rights and environmental protection. ¥ Clinton easily defeated Republican Bob Dole in the presidential contest of 1996, becoming the Þrst Demo crat elected to two terms since FDR. - Clinton and World Affairs ¥ Clinton took steps to encourage the settlement of long-standing international conßicts and tried to elevate support for human rights to a central place in international relations. ¥ The Oslo agreement brought temporary peace between Israel and Palestine. ¥ Like Carter, Clinton found it difÞcult to balance concern for human rights with strategic and economic interests. - Rwanda - The Balkan Crisis ¥ The most complex foreign policy crisis of the Clinton years arose from the disintegration of Yugoslavia. ¥ With the Cold War over, protection of human rights in the Balkans gave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a new purpose. - Human Rights ¥ Human rights emerged as justiÞcation for interventions in matters once considered to be the internal affairs of sovereign nations. Globalization and Its Discontents - The Computer Revolution ¥ Computers and the Internet produced a new economy. ¥ Microchips made possible the development of entirely new consumer products. ¥ The computer transformed American life. ¥ The Internet expanded the ßow of information and communications more radically than any invention since the printing press. - The Stock Market Boom and Bust ¥ In the United States, economic growth and talk of a new economy sparked a frenzied boom in the stock market reminiscent of the 1920s. ¥ Investors were especially attracted to the new dot coms, companies that conducted business via the Internet and seemed to symbolize the promise of the new economy. ¥ The bubble burst on April 14, 2000, when stocks suffered their largest one-day drop in history. - The Enron Syndrome ¥ Only after the market dropped did it become apparent that the stock boom of the 1990s had been fueled in part by fraud. - Enron - Fruits of Deregulation 2 ¥ The sectors of the economy most affected by the scandalsÑenergy, telecommunications, and stock tradingÑ had all been subjects of deregulation. ¥ Many corporate criminals were found guilty and had to serve prison terms and/or pay billions in compensation. ¥ Many stock frauds stemmed from the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act, a New Deal measure that had separated commercial banks from investment banks. - Rising Inequality ¥ The boom that began in 1995 beneÞted nearly all Americans. - However, overall, during the last two decades of the twentieth century, the poor and middle class became worse off while the rich became signiÞcantly richer. ¥ The economy, in large part due to NAFTA, continued its shift away from manufacturers. ¥ High-tech Þrms did not create enough high paying jobs to compensate. Culture Wars - The Newest Immigrants ¥ Because of shifts in immigration, cultural and racial diversity became increasingly visible in the United States. ¥ As in the past, most immigrants became urban residents. ¥ Post-1965 immigration formed part of the worldwide uprooting of labor arising from globalization. ¥ For the Þrst time in American history, women made up the majority of newcomers. - The New Diversity ¥ Latinos formed the largest single immigrant group. ¥ Between 1990 and 2010, 30 million Hispanics had been added to the American population. ¥ Latino communities remained far poorer than the rest of the country. ¥ Only after 1965 did immigration from Asia assume large proportions. - The Changing Face of Black America ¥ Between 1970 and 2000, twice as many Africans immigrated to the United States than had entered during the entire period of the Atlantic slave trade. ¥ Most African-Americans remained in a more precarious situation than whites or many recent immigrants. ¥ Despite the nation's growing racial diversity, school segregation was on the rise. - The Spread of Imprisonment ¥ African-Americans, compared to other Americans, had an extremely high rate of imprisonment. ¥ As the prison population grew, a "prison industrial complex" emerged. - Convict labor - The Burden of Imprisonment ¥ Over one-quarter of all African-American men could expect to serve time in prison at some time during their lives. ¥ African-Americans were also more likely than whites to suffer execution. 3 ¥ The continuing frustration of urban African-Americans exploded in 1992. - Rodney King - The Continuing Rights Revolution ¥ In 1990, newly organized disabled Americans won passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. ¥ The campaign for gay rights continued to gain momentum in the 1990s. - AIDS - Native Americans in the New Century ¥ The Native American population reached 4 million in the 2000 census, reßecting not only natural population growth but also an increased pride in identifying themselves as such to census enumerators. ¥ Many Native American tribes have proÞted from casinos on their lands. - Multiculturalism ¥ "Multiculturalism" was a term to celebrate group differences and demand group recognition. ¥ One sign of multiculturalism could be seen in the spread of academic programs dealing with speciÞc groups. - The Identity Debate ¥ Conservatives, and some traditional liberals as well, decried "identity politics" and multiculturalism for undermining a common sense of nationhood. ¥ Increased cultural diversity and changes in educational policy inspired harsh debates. - Cultural Conservatism ¥ The culture wars were battles over moral values that raged throughout the 1990s. - Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition ¥ It sometimes appeared during the 1990s that the country was reÞghting old battles between traditional religion and modern secular culture. - Family Values in Retreat ¥ The census of 2000 showed family values increasingly in disarray. ¥ Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania reafÞrmed a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. - The Antigovernment Extreme ¥ At the radical fringe of conservatism, the belief that the federal government posed a threat to American freedom led to the creation of private militias that armed themselves to fend off oppressive authority. - Gun owner ship ¥ An Oklahoma federal building was bombed by Timothy McVeigh in 1995. Impeachment and the Election of 2000 - The Impeachment of Clinton ¥ In the 1980s and 1990s scrutiny of politicians' private lives became far more intense than in the past. ¥ From the day he took ofÞce, charges of misconduct bedeviled Clinton. 4 - Whitewater - Paula Jones - Monica Lewinsky - The Disputed Election ¥ The 2000 election was between Al Gore and George W. Bush. ¥ The election proved to be one of the closest in the nation's history. - Florida ¥ It fell to Supreme Court justices to decide the outcome. ¥ The most remarkable thing about the election of 2000 was not so much its controversial ending as the even division of the country it revealed. - A Challenged Democracy ¥ Coming at the end of the de cade of democracy, the 2000 election revealed troubling features of the American political system at the end of the twentieth century. ¥ Evidence abounded in 2000 of a broad disengagement from public life. The Attacks of September 11 5