INTRODUCTION7considerable amount of elaboration: indeed, five chapters havebeen considered a bare minimum. In the rest of this Introduction,therefore, I explain how the rest of the book is structured, andwhat I aim to do in it. After the prologue constituted by thisIntroduction, the five chapters address the theme roughly in themanner of the five acts of classical drama: Chapters 1 and 2 areexposition; Chapters 3 and 4 are development; and Chapter 5 isconclusion or denouement. The main plot is Westerninterpretation of world order in history and Russia’s place in it.However, there is a sub-plot: comparative American-Russianhistory examined against the expanding background of the movefrom European to Atlantic ‘civilisation’, and then on to an all-embracing ‘new world order’. Incidentally, too, such questionsas the relationship between the arts and sciences are touchedupon. The actors are mainly academic or intellectual in theirprimary interest, but there are some who are doers rather thanthinkers, and a few who are a mixture of both.The first two chapters set out two kinds of modern Westernorder, constitutional and revolutionary, of which earlydefinitions were given by Maximilien de Robespierre in a speechdelivered at the end of a year of tumult and Terror on 25December 1793:The goal of the constitutional government is to maintainthe Republic; that of the revolutionary government, tofound it.The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies;the constitution is the regime of liberty, victorious andpeaceable.The revolutionary government demands extraordinaryactivity precisely because it is at war. It is subject to lessuniform and less rigorous laws because prevailingcircumstances are stormy and changing and, above all,because it is forced constantly to deploy new and speedyresources to meet new and pressing dangers.The constitutional government is concerned principallywith civil liberty; the revolutionary government, withpublic liberty. Under the constitutional regime little moreis required than to protect individuals against the abuseof the public power; under the revolutionary regime, the