When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, followed just a few years later by East Germany's Soviet parent state, it appeared that after a half-century of hair-trigger tension, America's major security fears would ease.
Thousands across America are glued to their web cast to hear this. And actually, I've never met one human being who said that they had seen one of those.
The Cold War was over. The global standoff between superpowers was at an end. The world saw America and the West triumphant, freedom preserved, and the promises of Marx and Lenin and Stalin discredited.
The issues and challenges surrounding nuclear non-proliferation are continuously evolving. They've changed dramatically at several junctures in recent memory.
Scholars and historians have dubbed the last 100 years the American Century, and I think there can be little doubt that the Council on Foreign Relations helped to make it so.
