Benefits to U.S. of International Organizations

Historian David Kennedy wrote an interesting article in The Atlantic about how President Wilson tried to bridge the realist and idealist camps of American foreign policy by setting up the League of Nations. Kennedy describes how the League failed, but how the UN, the IMF and other international organizations have generally managed to recognize the primacy of sovereign states and acknowledge the power of the United States while making the world “safe for democracy,” in Wilson’s words. The article is a good primer on why even the world’s most powerful nation can benefit from strong international organizations.