TheRiseandRetreatoftheNewWorldOrder 285developmentandeducationandopportunitiesforwomenindeveloping
(andIslamic)countries.T
hiswasa vastandambitiousagenda.Nothingquitelikeithad
everbeenputintoplay.VisiblyrootedintraditionalWilsonian
values,itcommittedtheUnitedStatestonothingshortofa revolution-
aryforeignpolicy.Itsoughttooverturnoneofthehardiest,mostdurable
elementsinmodern internationallife: the traditiondatingfrom the
seventeenthcenturythateachsovereignstatehas a freehandwhenit
comestodomesticpolicy.Moreover,itcommittedtheUnitedStatesto
support,inmanycountries,politicalgroupsthatsoughttheoverthrow
ofexistingregimes.Organizationsliketheprivatelymanaged,butU.S.-
funded,NationalEndowmentforDemocracymadegrantstoactivists
andgroupsbeingpersecutedbytheirgovernments.^20
TheWilsonianagendawasnotutterlyunprecedented,however.The
nineteenth-centuryBritisheffortstosuppresstheslavetrade,theinter-
ventionsofvarious powers toprotect theChristian subjects ofthe
Ottoman sultans, Allied policies toward Germany and Japan, and
Americaninterventions invariouscountriesaimedatpreventingthe
spreadofcommunismduringtheColdWarwereallexamplesofpoliti-
calinterventionsindefianceofstrictWestphalianprinciples.Neverthe-
lesstheWilsonianagendaofthe1990Swas uniquelyfar-reachingand
systematic. UnlikeAmericanpoliticalinterventionsduring theCold
War,itwasalsodivorcedfromtraditionalpowerpolitics."Friendly"dic-
tatorswouldbethetargetsofsubversionaswellashostileones.
ThedramaticWilsonianagendahadsignificantsuccesses.Nodoubt
partlybecauseoftheinfluenceandexampleoftheworld'smostpowerful
country,democraticinstitutionsandelectionsspreadrapidlyduringthe
1990S.AccordingtoFreedomHouse,whichpioneeredeffortstomeasure
thepresenceorabsenceofdemocraticfreedomsthroughouttheworld,
thenumberof"free"or"partly"freecountriesrosefrom 105 in 1989
to 145 ten years later,whilethenumberof"notfree" countriesfell
from 62 to 47 duringthesameperiodYExceptforsomeoftheformer
SovietrepublicsandSerbia,virtuallyeveryformerCommunistcountry
inEuropemadesubstantialstrides towardtheinstitutionalizationof
democracy.Poland,theBalticrepublics,Hungary,theCzechRepublic,
Slovakia,Bulgaria,Slovenia,andCroatiasurprisedtheskepticsbythe
strengthandvigoroftheirdemocraticinstitutions.