1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,160 Should America be the world's policeman? 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:09,880 Whenever this question is asked, and it has been asked for nearly 100 years, 3 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:16,060 the answer is usually no. Progressives will say that it suggests American arrogance. 4 00:00:16,060 --> 00:00:22,540 Who made America the boss of the world? Many conservatives, especially those with Libertarian leanings, 5 00:00:22,550 --> 00:00:27,290 will answer that what other countries do to their neighbors or even to their own people 6 00:00:27,290 --> 00:00:29,670 is no concern of ours. 7 00:00:29,670 --> 00:00:35,680 But here's the question that is almost never asked. What's the alternative? 8 00:00:35,690 --> 00:00:40,310 Well, one answer is the United Nations. 9 00:00:40,310 --> 00:00:47,260 That's why the UN was formed after the Second World War -- to maintain order and protect human rights. 10 00:00:47,260 --> 00:00:50,840 And that's why there are UN Peace Keepers around the world. 11 00:00:50,850 --> 00:00:55,239 But their record at keeping the peace is abysmal. 12 00:00:55,239 --> 00:01:03,130 To cite just one example, at least 500,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda in 1994 13 00:01:03,130 --> 00:01:06,100 while UN Peace Keepers stood by. 14 00:01:06,100 --> 00:01:11,860 Furthermore, the United Nations' nearly 200 members seldom agree on anything. 15 00:01:11,860 --> 00:01:17,360 And when they do marshal a peace-keeping force, its numbers are always small, they are poorly armed, 16 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:22,020 and highly restricted in their use of the few weapons they do possess. 17 00:01:22,020 --> 00:01:28,060 They are much more likely to step aside when faced with aggression than to actively oppose it. 18 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:33,600 What about dividing the world into spheres of influence? Is that really a good idea? 19 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:37,859 Do we want a world where Russia gets to do what it wants toward democratic neighbors 20 00:01:37,859 --> 00:01:45,209 such as Latvia, and Iran dominates its region, and so on? Would such a world lead to peace 21 00:01:45,209 --> 00:01:50,020 or to ever more violent competition over the borders of those "spheres." 22 00:01:50,020 --> 00:01:56,120 And, of course, there's an idea that if America leaves the world alone, the world will leave 23 00:01:56,130 --> 00:02:03,689 America alone. If only. The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said that you may not be 24 00:02:03,689 --> 00:02:10,879 interested in war but war is interested in you. Great powers don't get to take a vacation 25 00:02:10,879 --> 00:02:14,829 and don't get to take themselves off the terrorist target list. 26 00:02:14,829 --> 00:02:21,409 So, we quickly come to an inescapable conclusion: The United States is the World's Policeman 27 00:02:21,409 --> 00:02:25,889 because there is no alternative. And everybody knows it. 28 00:02:25,889 --> 00:02:32,640 But what if Americans don't want the job anymore? What if the cop walked off the beat? 29 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:37,860 The answer is clear and well grounded both in history and current events: 30 00:02:37,860 --> 00:02:41,520 when America retreats, the bad guys advance. 31 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:48,940 It's not a coincidence that after the US pulled its troops out of Iraq, Islamic State exploded onto the world stage. 32 00:02:48,940 --> 00:02:53,579 And while it's easy to criticize America for its perceived failures in Viet Nam and the 33 00:02:53,579 --> 00:02:59,719 first few years in Iraq, what about its obvious successes? After the Second World War ended 34 00:02:59,719 --> 00:03:05,919 in 1945, the Soviet Union sought to dominate the world. It failed for one reason: 35 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:08,239 The United States stopped it. 36 00:03:08,239 --> 00:03:13,259 In 1991 we stopped Saddam Hussein and kicked him out of Kuwait. 37 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:16,680 Later, we intervened to save the Balkans. 38 00:03:16,689 --> 00:03:22,299 As I write in my book, America in Retreat, the order the US has provided has not only 39 00:03:22,299 --> 00:03:29,899 had enormous security benefits for all the world, it has produced phenomenal economic advantages. 40 00:03:29,900 --> 00:03:37,380 Global GDP, just $11 trillion in 1980, doubled by the time the Cold War ended a decade later. 41 00:03:37,380 --> 00:03:41,460 By 2012 it reached $72 trillion. 42 00:03:41,460 --> 00:03:48,019 The debate over the value of an American supervised peace, Pax Americana, should have been settled 43 00:03:48,019 --> 00:03:54,879 long ago. But history only settles great debates for as long people remember the history. 44 00:03:54,880 --> 00:04:00,340 Many college students today could barely identify the Soviet Union, let alone explain how its 45 00:04:00,340 --> 00:04:05,060 plans to impose Communism on nation after nation were defeated. 46 00:04:05,060 --> 00:04:09,620 Americans have lived in a relatively orderly world for so long 47 00:04:09,620 --> 00:04:13,460 that many have become complacent about maintaining it. 48 00:04:13,469 --> 00:04:18,890 Perhaps that explains why, in recent years, the United States has adopted a foreign policy 49 00:04:18,890 --> 00:04:24,380 that neglects to do the things that have made that orderly world possible: Commitments to 50 00:04:24,380 --> 00:04:29,530 global security, military forces adequate to meet those commitments, a willingness to 51 00:04:29,530 --> 00:04:36,670 intervene in regional crises to protect allies and to confront or deter aggressive regimes. 52 00:04:36,670 --> 00:04:43,900 If the world's leading liberal-democratic nation doesn't assume its role as world policeman, 53 00:04:43,910 --> 00:04:50,170 the world's rogues will try to fill the breach. Then the world would be very much like it 54 00:04:50,170 --> 00:04:57,000 was in the 1930s, when Western self-doubt, war weariness, economic turmoil, American 55 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,280 self-involvement and the rise of ambitious dictatorships 56 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:04,400 combined to produce unprecedented death and mayhem. 57 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:11,200 Not everyone grows up wanting to be a cop. But no one wants to live in a neighborhood 58 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:15,140 -- or a world -- where there is no cop. 59 00:05:15,140 --> 00:05:16,940 Would you? 60 00:05:16,940 --> 00:05:19,300 I'm Bret Stephens.