HONOLULU -- President George W. Bush declared victory in the war against Iraq last week. Anyone expecting the president to bask in success would have been surprised by the speech: Bush made clear that Iraq is merely one campaign in the ongoing war against terrorism. A perfunctory reading of the administration's recent strategic pronouncements would have signaled what was coming. The president's speech underscored a critical point about the current U.S. government and its self-assigned role. This government believes in power and using it to create a better world. It is a revolutionary approach to international relations and promises to shake up the world as we know it.

Traditionally, great powers are status quo powers. They tend to be content with the existing international order since it enshrines their status. That usually means they are conservative, preferring stability above other values.

In one sense the Bush administration is a traditional great power: It believes in power. No one in the upper reaches of this government loses sleep over America's overwhelming might and the responsibilities it entails. They embrace the assertion in the National Security Strategy, published last year, that no country will be allowed to even challenge U.S. military supremacy.