Wilson’s policy – an idealistic illusion?
Wilson’s vision of the future (freedom with justice as defined in the
14 Points) was in fact more “realistic” than the “dictated” peace
treaties of the “realists”. A reconciliation between France and
Germany might have prevented the Second World War.
One can criticise Wilson, however, for failing to mobilize the full political
and economic weight of the USA for his vision of a just peace.
At least he succeeded in founding the League of Nations, the forerunner of
the United Nations. Though this organization proved unable to prevent the
Second World War, it did manage to resolve several minor conflicts in the
time between the Wars and it contributed to the process of de-colonization.
The weakness of idealistic politics is that ideal values can be perverted
and misused to disguise the pursuit of nationalistic interests. Wilson, for
instance, glorified the war as a “crusade for democracy”. Such
a morally motivated crusading mentality continues to this day to inspire
American foreign policy, most recently for example in Iraq, and is rightly
criticized by political “realists”.
