What Ferguson has seen, (like Barnett), is the connectedness and rule sets the 19th century had in places.
Connectedness is not something I'd associate with 19th century mercantilism.
One thing Barnett touches on, but doesn't enlarge upon much in work that I've seen, is the enourmous number, and the enormous potential force, of the huge number of people in the developing world - the ones we don't see, because they aren't blowing things up or killing each other - who are struggling very hard to gain democracy and economic freedom, and who are making steady, if often slow, progress. Too many Americans dismiss the developing world as a bunch of starving peasants ruled by pissant dictators. That's not reality. These people may not weild major military or economic force - yet - but they will be a factor in the future, and the time to engage them, and to start developing two-sided alliances. The time to do that is now, not 20 years down the line. Sure, they often disagree with us, and they will never accept our dictation, but if that's what we want from allies, we won't ever have many.
Freedom and civilization do not only exist in islands surrounded by chaos. They exist all over the world, and they are growing. This is a very good thing, and we need to ride with it and encourage it, even though it means, ultimately, accepting voluntary restraints on our use of our power. |
