This chapter examines the 25-year period following the fall of the Soviet Union. Haass begins by stating that in light of great power struggles of the past four centuries, relations have been good. However, with only one superpower (the United States), which lacked serious rivals, things might have been expected to be even better. Much of why they haven’t has to do with the relations between the United States and two countries, Russia and China, and Chapter 4 gives an overview of what transpired in both relationships.

Of the two, China is more important, as it represents the country likely “posing the biggest challenge to American primacy” (79), according to Haass. Russia, however, is tied up with this in a way, because the Soviet Union was the common rival that brought China and the United States together in the first place. For almost a quarter century after the end of the World War II, the Cold War kept the two apart, and there was little of the diplomatic contact that characterized the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. That changed virtually overnight with President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. As communist allies, China and the Soviets had hit a rocky patch, and Nixon saw the chance to woo China away.