Focusing on President Wilson’s 14 Points
Emanuel Pastreich
August 30, 2014
The Asia Institute
In light of the obscure negotiations concerning trade agreements and the lack of transparency in the diplomatic and security interactions of the United States with other nations, I would like to draw attention to the “Fourteen Points” issued by President Woodrow Wilson on January 8, 1918. At the time, the United States had entered the First World War, dragged into a blood bath between colonial powers which had little, or no, moral import. Although there are many who have criticized Woodrow Wilson for starting the United States on the path to foreign intervention and engaging in an ambiguous war, it is also true that by setting the United States up as the only country that had any explicit goals in the conflict, and making those goals something beyond narrow national interest (read “interests of the ruling class”) Wilson gave the United States a moral authority in international affairs that would last for a century and would be the reason that many were willing to forgive America’s mistakes in the interest of a greater global order.
That authority has been squandered away by the United States, and I mean the educated and privileged Americans who should have known better than to let this shift happen. And now we are seeing the dark consequences: a tendency around the world to assume that the United States has only pursued the most selfish goals both domestically and internationally from its very inception. That collapse of legitimacy can be seen in the profound doubts about the United States in Middle East as it can be seen in the response to the militarization of the military in Ferguson, Missouri.
I do not want to claim that President Wilson was a hero. He was quite simply a politician. I believe that the ideals he held up remain critical to us. The United States can benefit a bit from going back to his writings.
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