America’s Failed Mission to Proselytize for Liberal Democracy: Moving Forward

When President Woodrow Wilson said in 1917 that “the world must be made safe for democracy,” America entered the global arena of geopolitics for the first time, becoming the hegemon of the Western hemisphere until after it won World War II. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US began to act on Francis Fukuyama’s quintessential vision to export American liberal democracy to nation-states. Yet, given their multi-ethnic and diverse cultural backgrounds, integration into the American liberal systems was impossible. This has made the world unsafe, and not just for democracy. It sparked terrorism in the Islamic world, provoked the war in Ukraine and empowered Communist China to become a fierce competitor, threatening not just US interests, but the stability of the Pacific.

The challenge for the US has been, or perhaps may be still, overcoming its hubris of roaming around the world and proselytizing for its liberal democracy. How, then, can the world be made safe, and not just for democracy?