India, May 10 -- The "unrivalled power, prestige and influence" is how the USA of the 20th century has largely been defined. As Henry Kissinger rightly echoed, "In the 20th century, no country has influenced international relations as decisively and at the same time as ambivalently as the United States. No society has more firmly insisted on the inadmissibility of intervention in the domestic affairs of other states, or more passionately asserted that its own values are universally applicable." This was how Kissinger defined American power under the newly emerged rubric of "New World Order" in 1994.

Even when the historic Paris Peace Conference was held in 1919, the differences in decision making between the European and American leaders...