The emergence of the Cold War masked the fact that the architects of the post-World War II world had an extraordinarily inclusive vision, and from the Marshall Plan through the end of the Cold War supported a world order that facilitated global economic growth.
The existence and character of terrorism during the Cold War supports Scheuer's policy-based explanation.
Many people associate realpolitik with Richard Nixon's Cold War support of dictators regardless of the cost in human life.
So, for instance: There is a difference between supporting a longstanding, creaking dictatorship on terms negotiated during the Cold War and supporting a second-generation junta that's just deliberately overturned a democratic election.
Norway's Mr Bingen, less charitably, says this is a naive policy, "as if we were a peace-research institute or a development-aid agency" rather than modern nation-states.Sweden set the pace during the cold war by supporting African liberation movements such as the African National Congress and then giving huge dollops of aid to favoured countries such as Tanzania.
Diggins says, "Reagan went all out to fight the second cold war, by supporting counterinsurgencies in the third world".
As historian Greg Grandin described it, the US turned Central Americaa into one of the last killing fields of the Cold War". From supporting the United Fruit Company to ousting democratically-elected leaders to promoting CAFTA, the United States has secured its economic interests in the region through violence and imperialism.
Foreign meddling, the lack of a democratic tradition, a humiliating American occupation and cold-war support of a brutal dictator all figure in a scholar's well-written analysis.
Yet despite this today both are key U.S. allies, have substantial military forces (Japan is 7th in global firepower and has the second strongest nation in the Pacific after the U.S.; Germany is one of the key countries in NATO and 9th in global firepower), and after the Cold War have supported U.S. military operations abroad either in combat (Germany) or support and reconstruction.
Throughout the cold war, Washington supported a succession of authoritarian regimes.
