The Humbling of Democracy

Abstract

One of rhe most diffkult tasks faced by a war’s vicEors is EO createan inter- national System that can satisfy the interests and needs of its principa! protagonists. Failure LO accomplish this end resulis in an increase in ten- sion, which oft en sparks another major war. The int er national System that the principa! vicrors sought ro create at the end of the First World War had its first significant, damaging effect on its most important State: the United States. Convinced that by becoming an actrve merriberof the new international System it would get entangled in the political affairs of cor- nipE states and lose the freedom to design its own foreign policies, the United States refused to assume the responsibilities typically expected of the system’s most powert ui membcr. This action had two distinct, but interrelated, effects. First, it created a major power vacuum within the international System itself. And second, it prolonged the wor!d economic depression and exacerbated its costs.