In this section of Rise to Globalism, the authors discuss the dramatic change in the world order that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This change was the collapse of the Cold War order in Europe in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. As a result, the United States had to rethink its foreign policy and its place in the international arena as the only remaining superpower. However, America remained engaged in different parts of the world. Ambrose and Brinkley address the American actions in Latin America and the Middle East during the George H.W. Bush administration. The focal point of his foreign policy was the 1991 Gulf War. The next president, Bill Clinton, was primarily interested in foreign policy as a tool to advance American business interests abroad, for instance, in post-Soviet Russia and with NAFTA. Clinton also had to face crises in other parts of the world, including Haiti, Somalia, and the Balkans.

First, the authors describe the radical changes that occurred in Eastern and Central Europe in the late 1980s. Paradoxically, they argue, these changes were the result of the internal, systemic contradictions in the Eastern Bloc rather than direct American intervention.