Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski offers a reasoned but
unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign
policy. Though they cover less than two decades, these three administrations
span a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the
United States, having emerged from the Cold War with an unprecedented degree of
power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. The
tale of these three administrations is a tale of decline: from the competent but
conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the good intentions
hobbled by self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of
America's future