This passage stood out to me in Fareed Zakaria's excellent article ("Our Way") in the new New Yorker ...

Perhaps most important, Roosevelt and Truman, having lived through the nineteen-thirties, knew how fragile the international system was and believed that it needed support. Having reaped the fruits of this system—upheld by all successive Presidents of both parties—we have come to believe that stability is natural. But the world order put into place by the United States in the past half century—an order based on alliances, organizations, and norms — functions largely because of the respect paid to it by its superpower creator. Without that support, it will crumble into chaos.

It's worth pondering. Also check out this brief Talk of the Town piece on George Kennan, the now-98 year old conceptualizer of 'containment', and the passing of his doctrine. It's good, really good.