On the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

On the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

A century after Versailles, and eight decades after the system based upon that flawed treaty collapsed, the world needs order more than ever. Not the order of “benevolent global hegemony” based on full-spectrum dominance of the United States, but an order – possible and necessary – which would be based on a multilateral balance-of-power system which accepts each key player as both legitimate and permanent. Of course this is the exact opposite of the relentless Russophobic expansion of NATO, the promotion of color-coded revolutions, the many wars in the Middle East which have had disastrous consequences for the countries concerned and for the rationally articulated American interest.^[1]

Given how the U.S. takes it upon itself to judge the worth of all other nations in the world and to decide any matter outside the framework of collective security agreed to after WWII (and heedless of the constitutional restriction on executive war making), the U.S. hypocrisy about the “rules-based international order” is a bit hard to swallow.

Mr. Trfkovic’s article is well worth your time. It’s one of the more lucid discussions of the settlement of WWI I’ve run across.

Notes
^[1] "A Century of Disorder." By Srdja Trfkovic, Chronicles Blog, 6/28/19.