The New World Disorder

IN THE euphoria of a triumphant moment, one is tempted to use words that will be regretted later on. I do not know whether George Bush regrets using the expression “a New World Order” in his address before a joint session of Congress on September 11, 1990. To be fair to him, he has often been misquoted as having hailed that hypothetical New World Order, whereas he was merely listing it as a legitimate objective after two summits with Mikhail Gorbachev, and just weeks after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

Again to be fair, things were certainly going “our way” at the time. Even President Reagan had fallen under the spell of Gorbachev, but it was clear to him, and to his successor, that the Soviet Union was heading for collapse. Bush could legitimately congratulate himself for having skillfully built a coalition to break Saddam Hussein’s hubristic expansionism, with UN approval: no mean feat. The sad fact remains, four years later, that not only is there no sign of an emerging New World Order, but there is disconcerting evidence of a new world disorder on a vast scale.

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Brian Crozier

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IN THE euphoria of a triumphant moment, one is tempted to use words that will be regretted later on. I do not know whether George Bush regrets using the expression “a New World Order” in his address before a joint session of Congress on September 11, 1990. To be fair to him, he has often been misquoted as having hailed that hypothetical New World Order, whereas he was merely listing it as a legitimate objective after two summits with Mikhail Gorbachev, and just weeks after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

Again to be fair, things were certainly going “our way” at the time. Even President Reagan had fallen under the spell of Gorbachev, but it was clear to him, and to his successor, that the Soviet Union was heading for collapse. Bush could legitimately congratulate himself for having skillfully built a coalition to break Saddam Hussein’s hubristic expansionism, with UN approval: no mean feat. The sad fact remains, four years later, that not only is there no sign of an emerging New World Order, but there is disconcerting evidence of a new world disorder on a vast scale.