The Case for Western Imperialism

MANY PEOPLE have been bitterly disappointed that the end of the cold war has not brought a new golden age of peace and increased prosperity. Looking around the world, they see approximately forty regional conflicts, some of great horror and intensity, which feed on the vast quantities of cut-price conventional weapons now available. They know there are at least thirty thousand nuclear warheads in the former Soviet Union, some of which may be unleashed on the hidden arms market by economic desperation or corruption or both. They are appalled by the resurgence of violent nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe and in former Soviet Asia, in almost every community where the end of totalitarian rule has enabled popular sentiment to express itself. A huge wave of ethnic disturbances and territorial and oceanic disputes is also impending in eastern Asia. The threat of an ultimate catastrophe has been replaced by the reality and future likelihood of scores of more limited disasters. On top of this, the advanced countries are immersed in the most serious and prolonged recession in half a century, which limits their ability to come to the aid of the sixty to seventy poor nations distressed by war, famine, or economic collapse. And Europe has just witnessed its worst currency crisis since 1931. TV news makes grim viewing today, and the assumption is made that these disturbing trends will intensify over the next decade and that the early years of the twenty-first century will be characterized by alarm and misery.

I do not share this view at all, and I want to explain my reasons for looking into the future with cautious optimism. One of the most sensible precepts of the Ju-daeo-Christian tradition is “Count your blessings,” and our most important blessing is that we have survived the twentieth century, perhaps the most dangerous century in the history of humanity. We are leaving it with the international order, which first broke down in 1914 and remained fractured until the late 1980s, at least partially restored and with good prospects of a complete recovery. Looking back, one is appalled to think of the number of occasions when the civilized world was in real danger of extinction. I am old enough to recall at least three: 1940, when the Nazi system, the most dynamic of all the ideological Frankenstein’s monsters which sought to dominate our century, had overrun continental Europe and seemed poised to take over Africa and Asia too; 1945—46, when America seemed about to pull all its forces home, leaving the rest of the world to Stalin; and the mid 1970s, when the aftermath of Watergate left the United States almost leaderless and encouraged Brezhnev and his surrogates to resume taking over the world.

About the Author

Paul Johnson

Mr. Johnson is a prominent author and historian.

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MANY PEOPLE have been bitterly disappointed that the end of the cold war has not brought a new golden age of peace and increased prosperity. Looking around the world, they see approximately forty regional conflicts, some of great horror and intensity, which feed on the vast quantities of cut-price conventional weapons now available. They know there are at least thirty thousand nuclear warheads in the former Soviet Union, some of which may be unleashed on the hidden arms market by economic desperation or corruption or both. They are appalled by the resurgence of violent nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe and in former Soviet Asia, in almost every community where the end of totalitarian rule has enabled popular sentiment to express itself. A huge wave of ethnic disturbances and territorial and oceanic disputes is also impending in eastern Asia. The threat of an ultimate catastrophe has been replaced by the reality and future likelihood of scores of more limited disasters. On top of this, the advanced countries are immersed in the most serious and prolonged recession in half a century, which limits their ability to come to the aid of the sixty to seventy poor nations distressed by war, famine, or economic collapse. And Europe has just witnessed its worst currency crisis since 1931. TV news makes grim viewing today, and the assumption is made that these disturbing trends will intensify over the next decade and that the early years of the twenty-first century will be characterized by alarm and misery.

I do not share this view at all, and I want to explain my reasons for looking into the future with cautious optimism. One of the most sensible precepts of the Ju-daeo-Christian tradition is “Count your blessings,” and our most important blessing is that we have survived the twentieth century, perhaps the most dangerous century in the history of humanity. We are leaving it with the international order, which first broke down in 1914 and remained fractured until the late 1980s, at least partially restored and with good prospects of a complete recovery. Looking back, one is appalled to think of the number of occasions when the civilized world was in real danger of extinction. I am old enough to recall at least three: 1940, when the Nazi system, the most dynamic of all the ideological Frankenstein’s monsters which sought to dominate our century, had overrun continental Europe and seemed poised to take over Africa and Asia too; 1945—46, when America seemed about to pull all its forces home, leaving the rest of the world to Stalin; and the mid 1970s, when the aftermath of Watergate left the United States almost leaderless and encouraged Brezhnev and his surrogates to resume taking over the world.