The US at the time did not seem to understand that a multipolar world order was emerging – one that would make it very difficult to pursue, without serious consequences, the policies that Bush and Clinton had discussed in 2000. In a 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin made this plain, vehemently rejecting the intervention in Iraq and especially US plans to expand antimissile defense systems to Europe, calling this an act of aggression toward Russia and a breach of common European security.
当时的美国似乎并不理解多极的世界正在形成——在这样一个世界里，你很难在不引起严重后果的情况下追求2000年小布什和克林顿所讨论的政策。2007年，在俄罗斯总统普京在慕尼黑安全会议的演讲中断然拒绝干预伊朗，尤其是美国将其反导弹防御系统扩大到欧洲的计划，称这是对俄罗斯的侵略行为，也违反了共同欧洲安全。