After all, as the columnist David Brooks recently observed, “If there is one soft power gift that America does possess, it is the tendency to imagine new worlds.” In other words, the invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent increase in the rhetoric of democracy in the Middle East, may have changed frames of reference about the status quo.
也许产生这种结果也毫不奇怪。归根结底，正如专栏作家大卫•布鲁克斯近来所观察到的，“如果美国真的拥有所谓的软性权力天赋，那就是他们构想新世界的愿望。”换句话说，入侵伊拉克，以及中东地区随之而来的对民主的关注，也许已经改变了现状赖以存在的基本框架。