The most devastating war in history came four years later. In the first decade of the 20th century, the world’s smartest minds predicted an end to great-power conflict as revolutions in communication and transportation knit economies and people closer together. The late 18th century was the high point of the Enlightenment in Europe, before the continent fell suddenly into the abyss of the Napoleonic Wars.
History shows that world orders do collapse, however, and when they do it is often unexpected, rapid, and violent. Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Project on International Order and StrategyĪmericans tend to take the fundamental stability of the international order for granted, even while complaining about the burden the United States carries in preserving that stability.
