Whatever its other effects, the Soviet?American Cold War helped launch and sustain
an era of feverish intellectual activity in the linked fields of international relations
theory and foreign policy analysis. One sign of the importance of more recent
phenomena with all their resonant impacts may be the continuing ferment in theorizing
about international relations, foreign policy and public international law years
after the war?s conclusion, a ferment which the 9/11/01 terrorist attack on the
United States and its aftermath have intensified. Comprehending the scholarly
inquiries and debates in these fields should be important to intellectuals regardless
of their professional interests, not only because those inquiries and debates concern
profound epistemological and ontological issues, but primarily because they have
influenced and continue to influence the trajectory of United States foreign policy. |