Although the Bush presidency witnessed international breakthroughs of historic importance – the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of Germany, and the 1991 Gulf War – it did not articulate a new vision or blueprint for U.S. foreign policy. Bush may have had a superb grasp of details, but he derided the “vision thing,” opting instead for a pragmatic approach with common sense as an effective guide to action. The Bush administration also did not reflect deeply on how it would cope with the strategic, ideological, and moral issues brought about by the end of the Cold War. Rather than initiate events, Bush and Secretary of State James Baker reacted to them as they unfolded in the international sphere instead.

Nonetheless, Bush and Baker bequeathed Bill Clinton a Middle Eastern political landscape that had held considerable promise. The international coalition assembled by Bush had liberated Kuwait and soundly defeated Saddam Hussein. Responding to Arab and third world criticism of America's double standard toward Israel, Bush and Baker had successfully browbeaten the Likud government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir into participating in the 1991 Madrid peace conference and to halting the building of new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.