Vietnam, 9/11, Europe and the Unilateralist Temptation in U.S. Foreign Policy

The essay intends to put into a historical perspective the events which profoundly changed the evolution of international relations in the first years of the XXI century. It searches for a convincing interpretative correlation between the US foreign policy turn towards its European allies at the end of the Sixties, when Richard Nixon replaced Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House, and the unilateralist temptation, which characterized the policies of the George W. Bush administration, in particular since the tragic events of September 11, 2001.