New Vocabulary 2: Robert Kagan "End of Dreams, Return of History"

From Robert Kagan. 2008. "End of Dreams, Return of History." Policy Review, 144 (Aug & Sep, 2007).
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/8552512.html

* tantalizing: (adj) describes something that cuases desire and excitement in you, but which is unlikely to provide a way of satiflying that desire.

"The world has become normal again. The years immediately following the end of the Cold War offered a tantalizing glimpse at a new kind of international order."


* abberation: (n) a temporary change from the typical or usual way of behaving.

"Today the nations of the West still cling to that vision. Evidence to the contrary--the turn toward autocracy in Russia or the growing military ambition of China--is either dismissed as a temporary aberration or denied entirely."


* subjugate: (v) to defeat people or a country and rule them in a way which allows them no freedom.

"They have declared their readiness to "support free people who are risisting attempted subjugation" by forces of oppresion, to "pay any price, bear any burden" to defend freedom, to seek "democratic enlargement" in the world, and to work for the "end of tyranny.""


* abjure: (v) to state publicly that you no longer agree with a belief or way of behaving.

"It is worth asking not only whether past administrations acted differently but also which of these any future administration, regardless of party, would promise to abjure in its conduct of foreign policy."


* nil : (n) nothing

"The prospect of a unified Europe counter balancing the United States is practically nil."


* ominipotent: (adj) having unlimited power; able to do anything.

"Predominanc is not the same thing as omnipotence. Just because the United States has more power than every power else does not mean it can impose its will on everyone else."


* jostle: (v) to knock or push rougly against someone in order to move past them or get more space when you are in a crowd of people.

"During the Cold War, this historical tendency of great powers to jostle with oen another for status and influence as well as for wealth and power was largely suppressed by the two superpowers and their rigid bipolar order."


* passe: (adj) no longer fashionable

"The Chinese do not share the view that power is passe; hence their now towdecades-long military buildup."


* grudge: (n) strong feeling of anfer or dislike for a person who you feel has treated you badly, which often lasts for a long time.

"They either happily or grudgingly allow United States Navy to be the gurantor of international waterways and trade routes."


* recoil: (v) to refuse to accept an idea or principle feeling strong disgust or disapproval.

"Most Europeans recoil at the thought, but even today Enrupe's stability depends on the gurantee, however distant and one hopes unnecessary, that the United States could step in to check any dangerous development on the continent."


* succumb: (v) to lose the determination to oppose something to accept defeat.

"People who believe greater equality among nations would be preferable to the present American predominance often succumb to a basic logical fallacy."