Photo by Marek Studzinski

“No matter how much American foreign policy may be caricatured as overly idealistic, the country’s rhetorical commitment to a liberal international order and support for democracy around the world have provided a principled basis for continuing involvement in international affairs.  It has focused U.S. attention on abuses of power abroad that are actually susceptible to U.S. influence.  It has also facilitated democratic transitions in places such as Chile, the Philippines, and South Korea.”

– Francis Fukuyama, The Washington Post, September 13, 2026, “How realism gets the world profoundly wrong.”

There is no greater myth regarding American exceptionalism than the view that only the United States has always seen the promotion of “liberal democracy” as part of its national identity.  In actual fact, the United States pledges itself to “liberal democracy” the world over only when its military designs are compromised or stymied.  The model was President Woodrow Wilson’s “war to end all wars” during World War I.  When Wilson asked........

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