When the US recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I found myself reflecting on another US president from a different time, whose internationalist vision shaped the post second World War order. President Franklin D Roosevelt probably did more than any single individual to defeat fascism and shape the international order after the war.

During his first two (of four) terms, he led the US out of a deep economic depression with his New Deal, mobilising millions of unemployed workers in public works programmes such as rural electrification and school building. He overhauled American capitalism by reforming the banking and financial system. His administration leveraged the power of federal agencies and created a social safety net, arguably saving American democracy from political extremism for a couple of generations.

In the 1930s, when the US was still recovering from the Great Depression and first World War, isolationism had considerable political and popular support as Spain, Italy, Japan and Germany succumbed to fascist dictators. However, well before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Roosevelt recognised the US would have to join the war, or else face a world order inimical to democratic institutions and western security.

Although a series of neutrality acts prohibited the US from taking sides, he set about persistently reshaping public sentiment in support of entering the war, with........

© The Irish Times