The first half of the 20th century was horrific. Wars were human and economic disasters of historic proportion. They stalled much of the Industrial Revolution, diverted productive capital to war materiel and destroyed maybe one-third of the world’s productive infrastructure. Twice in just 30 years, three of the world’s most advanced economies ended wars unable to feed or house their own population.
The destruction of human capital robbed our species of untold talent, innovation, imagination and insight. The demographic ripples continue to be felt today.
Those of us born after 1950 entered a profoundly different world. A world of relative peace and security. We wish to tell ourselves a different story, but the facts hold us in check. Between 1945 and 1950 a broad, uneasy peace fell upon the earth. It was followed almost immediately by prosperity.
In 1900, just over 75% of humans lived in extreme poverty, consuming less than $2 per day (in today’s dollars) in food, clothing and shelter. By 1950, that number had declined by roughly 10%, leaving just under two-thirds of humans in desperate, life-threatening impoverishment. Over the next 50 years of relative peace and prosperity, the share in grinding poverty more than halved.
The long path from World War II to the present brought us unmatched peace and prosperity. But the lengthy stability and economic growth since 1945 creates complacency and forgetfulness. This makes us more likely to fulfill Santayana’s warning from 1905 that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The long peace of the last 75 years was brought to us by the alliances of rich democracies. These include the United Nations, the South East Asia Treaty Organization and the Organization of American States. The largest and most successful of these was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
We Americans joined NATO with an 82 to 13 vote in 1949. NATO managed to secure peace in Europe for three-quarters of a century. This allowed Americans to dramatically reduce military spending from more than 11.3 percent of GDP in 1950 to 2.7 percent in 2000, where it is today. NATO participated in peacekeeping efforts on its borders, but it focused mostly on the defense of Europe and North America.
Basking in our current peace and prosperity, Americans seem to forget that on only one occasion has NATO gone to war to defend a member — September 11, 2001. Afterward, every NATO nation and more than two dozen aspiring NATO member nations fought alongside American troops in Afghanistan.
Many also fought in Iraq. Among those supporting the United States was Ukraine, who sent more than 6,000 troops to Iraq. Ukraine suffered 18 killed and nearly 50 wounded alongside our forces. Instead of giving thanks for this enduring alliance of peace, today we hear clear echoes of American isolationism and our failure to rise against the threat of war in the 1930s.
There is an unmistakable echo of the failed isolationism of the 1920s and 1930s sweeping our nation today. Again, it is a populist wing that has split the Republican Party, ready to abandon alliances and ignore the lonely heroism of those holding the flame of democracy in Europe.
During World War II, the GOP abandoned its isolationist fever, aided by electoral pummeling. The second half of the 20th century was one of bipartisan support for NATO, SEATO and the United Nations. It was Ronald Reagan’s GOP that made the strength of these alliances the centerpiece of an American foreign policy that dismantled the Soviet Union.
Today, a whopping 81% of Americans support NATO, and 63% support continued support for Ukraine. A full 57% of Americans feel we should support Ukraine until they’ve recovered the land lost to the Russian invasion. That is joyful news.
The isolationist leaders of the 1920s and 1930s are remembered today only in footnotes, and there only with derision. Those who today wish to abandon NATO and our democratic allies in Europe face the same shameful future.
Happily, isolationism is not popular with Americans who are educated about the world and the grim reality of war. Sadly, citizen Trump remains willing, if not eager, to abandon NATO and Ukraine. For that reason, among many others, he must remain only a citizen.
Michael J. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and an associate professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Send comments to [email protected].
