merican intervention and military prowess have not been responsible for the spread of American culture. Largely non-interventionist during World War I and for a portion of World War II, the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan forever changed America views toward intervention in foreign lands. Not only has American intervention been responsible for victories in both these wars but the long and subtly fought Cold War from 1950-1990 ended in American victory, with democracy proving to be the favorite form of state in the court of international public opinion as the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union crumbled. American intervention and international policing rose during the century to the point where international organizations and bodies like the U.N., the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) all have a distinctly American flavor and are often aligned with American values. During the 1940s, Henry Luce wrote of the century which he believed to be the American Century “American must be the elder brother of nations in the brotherhood of man” (Knickerbocker 1). Since that time, intellectual endeavors, commercial endeavors, and military and diplomatic endeavors have spread American culture and institutions globally on perhaps an unprecedented level in world history at any time save for the Roman empire: “Not only did the U.S. make major original contributions to philosophy, science, art, and literature, but the important facets of Western European culture were absorbed into the American intellectual world and achieved their ultimate form and highest significance in the American context. Above all, the U.S. became the first among superpowers in the nuclear age, creating strategic outposts and alliances in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia—usually with a combination of military muscle and diplomacy” (Knickerbocker 1).
Liberal democracy as a form of state and market-based economies be...