In the wake of budget troubles in the United States and the near collapse of the nation’s promise to pay its debts, China has suggested the “de-Americanization of the world.”

De-Americanization goes beyond economics. China, Russia, and other nations are questioning, not only the primacy of the U.S. dollar, but the rules set up by Western-oriented nations, including the United States. China bristles at any questioning of its internal affairs.

Should any nation have a right to interfere in the sovereign affairs of another nation over alleged human rights violations such as torture? In 1948, the United States, one of forty eight nations, voted in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among other issues, the declaration prohibits signatories from practicing torture, slavery, or prohibition of religious preferences.

Most Americans take for granted that certain practices are good: freedom of religion, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty of a crime, the right to peaceful assembly, and so on. At times we have fallen far short of what we profess. Nevertheless, we adhere in principle to basic human rights and have allied ourselves with European and other nations who believe similarly.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Middle East took center stage. China rose meteorically in economic realms. The Rwandan massacres of 1994 brought frustration. Foreign policy was challenged by drugs coming from southwest Asia and South America. India and Pakistan, two old enemies, one influenced by Hinduism and the other by Islam, faced off with nuclear weapons. A bit player, North Korea, boasts of nuclear weapons.

These new players on the world stage appear with less history of adherence to our professed beliefs. How do we live peacefully with them in the new global community? Where did our assumptions originate? If we deem them “good,” how is the best way to encourage them in cultures far different from our own?