Commentary Almost indiscernible in the relatively banal debate about foreign policy, and particularly the relations of the United States with China and Iran, is a sideways shift in the alliance system that was set up to deal with, and was the framework for the successful conclusion of, the Cold War. The only rival of the United States as the world’s premier power, the Soviet Union, disintegrated into 15 separate states and international communism collapsed without a shot being fired in anger between the two main protagonists. It was the greatest and most bloodless strategic victory in the history of the nation state. To the great credit of the United States, there was a practically no triumphalism; no invidious jubilation of the kind that inevitably occurs at the victory in armed conflicts when one power has surrendered to one or more others. The continuing Russian leadership was graciously treated and even …