<P> Bush started to take the initiative from Gorbachev during the run - up to the Persian Gulf War, when he began to define the elements of the new world order as he saw it and link the new order's success to the international community's response in Kuwait . </P> <P> Initial agreement by the Soviets to allow action against Saddam highlighted this linkage in the press . The Washington Post declared that this superpower cooperation demonstrates that the Soviet Union has joined the international community, and that in the new world order Saddam faces not just the U.S. but the international community itself . A New York Times editorial was the first to assert that at stake in the collective response to Saddam was "nothing less than the new world order which Bush and other leaders struggle to shape ." </P> <P> In A World Transformed, Scowcroft notes that Bush even offered to have Soviet troops amongst the coalition forces liberating Kuwait . Bush places the fate of the new world order on the ability of the U.S. and the Soviet Union to respond to Hussein's aggression . The idea that the Persian Gulf War would usher in the new world order began to take shape . Bush notes that the "premise (was) that the United States henceforth would be obligated to lead the world community to an unprecedented degree, as demonstrated by the Iraqi crisis, and that we should attempt to pursue our national interests, wherever possible, within a framework of concert with our friends and the international community ." </P> <P> On March 6, 1991, President Bush addressed Congress in a speech often cited as the Bush administration's principal policy statement on the new world order in the Middle East, following the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait . Michael Oren summarizes the speech, saying; "The president proceeded to outline his plan for maintaining a permanent U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf, for providing funds for Middle East development, and for instituting safeguards against the spread of unconventional weapons . The centerpiece of his program, however, was the achievement of an Arab - Israeli treaty based on the territory - for - peace principle and the fulfillment of Palestinian rights ." As a first step Bush announced his intention to reconvene the international peace conference in Madrid . </P>

The end of the cold war and a new world order 1989 to the present