For several years after the end of the Cold War in the 1990’s, we assumed that democratic traditions would take over the world. However, we discovered that democracy was more fragile than we thought. Indeed, democracy requires continued care from the nations who endorse it.
Previous to the Russian invasion of Ukraine early in 2022, the United States attempted to decrease global involvement in democracy. The country’s failures in Afghanistan and its less than stellar performance in the Middle East soured the country on commitments abroad.
Europe, however, was another story, even though Americans weren’t keen on involvement even there until the Russian attempt to take over Ukraine. The obvious desire of most citizens of that country to resist what was obviously an invasion of a sovereign European nation changed American ideas about resistance.
Robert Kagan, of the Brookings Institution, in an article about our change, wrote: “Russia’s invasion has changed Americans’ views not only of Ukraine but also of the world in general and the United States’ role in it. (“A Free World, If You and Keep It,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2023)
This change mirrors the past history of the county. Americans were not keen to become involved in the two world wars of the twentieth century until it became evident that what was happening in Europe and Asia concerned us as well.
Writing about U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, Kagan said that his “interventionist policies from 1937 on were not a response to an increasing threat to American security. What worried Roosevelt was the potential destruction of the broader liberal world beyond American shores.”
Kagan traces the path of the United States as it grew from this reluctant involvement in affairs beyond our shores to a perhaps belated understanding that if the U.S. doesn’t defend a democratic world order, no one will.
Indeed, Kagan believes that the absence of American involvement in world affairs will in itself encourage dictatorship and great power conflict.
He does not mention one obstacle hindering our acceptance of the continued role we can play toward a more democratic world order. This is the danger of refusing to allow one of our own elections to stand as proved and certified.
As Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo said “We have met the enemy and he is us.”