Honestly I think it kind of hurt them. They lost their big boogeyman, and suddenly half of them had no reason to exist. That's also why they kept trying to pin Iran and Iraq as these boogeymen who were working with Cuba and North Korea to destroy America. Besides, a lot of them had degrees and experience in Anti-soviet operations, and suddenly that wasn't as needed. And nobody, not even neolibs, really believe that you can just uproot yourself from the skills you've been training for your entire career. So they scrambled to find another foe, and lucky for them, they have finally landed on China.
Clinton-era neoliberals must have had such a dopamine flood from the collapse of the Soviet Union that they've been chasing that dragon ever since.
Honestly I think it kind of hurt them. They lost their big boogeyman, and suddenly half of them had no reason to exist. That's also why they kept trying to pin Iran and Iraq as these boogeymen who were working with Cuba and North Korea to destroy America. Besides, a lot of them had degrees and experience in Anti-soviet operations, and suddenly that wasn't as needed. And nobody, not even neolibs, really believe that you can just uproot yourself from the skills you've been training for your entire career. So they scrambled to find another foe, and lucky for them, they have finally landed on China.