by Robert G. Neumann

About the author: Robert G. Neumann, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, is senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

A specter is haunting the world—the specter of uncertainty, of aimless drift. After the short-lived euphoria caused by the collapse of communism, people face a world void of ideas. Western leaders, only yesterday so triumphant, seem burned out, while the widespread application of national self-determination, hallowed especially in the United States since Woodrow Wilson’s day, has imposed large-scale death, dislocation, and misery on the world.

The United States Must Lead

We simply cannot wait until all the cobwebs have been cleared out of our minds. We must try to discern at least a...