Innocence may be lost in the post-Cold War West, but the imitation of innocence is evident in the social and political landscape of the 1990s. Eminent sociologist David Reisman has argued that the current culture attempts to imitate a purity of action, motive, and spirit commonly associated with the 1950s: faith in government, optimism concerning the future, and a can-do social and political attitude. These essays by prominent scholars and former policy makers carry forward Reisman's assertions in exposing the pretense in supposedly moral-driven Western policy, especially as it pertains to the crisis in Bosnia.In his introduction to The Conceit of Innocence, Stjepan Mestrovic shows how the theory of imitation--or conceit--flows out of Reisman's and his own previous works and acts as the theme that binds the essays of the contributing authors.Renowned anthropologist Akbar Ahmed discusses the existence of "ethnic cleansing" in the face of Western assertions that ethnic-based hatreds largely have been overcome. In his two essays, Richard Johnson shows the hypocrisy in the U.S. State Department's reaction to the genocide in Bosnia and demonstrates how the West--even as it pretends to expand NATO and enforce security and democratic principles--has begun to appease Russian expansionism as it had appeased Serbian aggression. Syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer furthers this theme by exposing how the White House, the UN secretary-general, and a