At the time of his death in 1936, German philosopher of history Oswald Spengler might well have felt that The Decline of the West he had foreseen in his classic study was as imminent as, in his opinion, it was inevitable. Hitler reigned in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, and Stalin in the Soviet Union. As it was the era of dictatorships, so, too, it was the decade of the Great Depression. Everywhere, the West appeared to be in disarray, if not on the verge of disintegration. Yet, despite the horror and the Holocaust of World War II, the collapse of colonialism and the rise of the Third World, the West somehow survived—and ultimately prospered as never before in its history. Now, though, both in America and Western Europe, happy days are anywhere but here again. The economies of the U. S. and Western Europe are stagnant, and unemployment has risen to levels not seen since the Depression. Dictatorship, not democracy, is the prevailing system of government in the Third World, and communism is perceived as a threat to freedom in most areas of the globe. Small wonder, then, that the Spenglerian vision of the decline and fall of the West has again arisen like the phoenix from the ashes. In her reconsideration of Spengler's work, Adda B. Bozeman reflects on how the course of postwar American diplomacy in the Third World might have been altered if the policy makers in Foggy Bottom had given more careful consideration to what the German philosopher saw as the futility of trying to impose Occidental values on Oriental societies. Had they paid attention to Spengler, perhaps, for example, American diplomats would not have come such a cropper in Iran. A professor emeritus of international relations from Sarah Lawrence College, Mrs. Bozeman recently completed a report, commissioned by the U. S. Information Agency, on "U. S. Foreign Policy: The Prospects for Democracy, National Security, and World Peace."

Ever since the coming of the New Deal 50 years ago, the rich and the right wing of the Republican Party have been decrying the growth of what they label "Big Government." Indeed, the crusade against such government had much to do with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Now, in an article as cogent as it is certain to be controversial, Bernard P. Kiernan argues that if big government did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it, considering the complexities of modern society and the interdependence of nations. "My last article in the VQR," Mr. Kiernan writes, ""The Myth of Peace through Strength" (Spring 1981) drew considerable attention from a growing body of people, here and in Europe, who are increasingly alarmed by the nuclear arms race.... The editors of Der Spiegel in West Germany translated and published a shortened version as part of a general series on American nuclear policy." Mr. Kiernan is a professor of political science at Concord College in Athens, West Virginia.