In hindsight, American attitudes at the end of the Cold War seem both quaint and naive. Some U.S. hawks, including George H.W. Bush himself, were suspicious after Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev promised a “new world order” during a Dec. 1988 United Nations speech.

The elder Bush later co-opted the term in the run-up to military actions against Iraq. “We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment,” he declared in a speech before Congress, saying a new world order can emerge: “a new era, freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony.”