The Struggle for Democracy in a Changed World

In the conception of US planners of the modern world order after 1945 the Third World was to function ‘as a source of raw materials and a market’. The major threat to this system were nationalistic regimes (not the USSR or communism), which would be best kept in check by pliant but democratic means, but failing that the ‘rascal multitude could be taught lessons’. The US role of policing this system has evolved since their defeat in Vietnam. With the end of the Cold War, the Soviet empire can be ‘Latin Americanised’ while the US is legitimising force, doing so, for instance, through the UN as now in the Gulf. However, with the economic rise of Europe and Japan, the US is now turning to them to pay the bills, while at the same time using its unchallenged military muscle to strengthen its relative economic position.