(image: Wikimedia)
The horrors of the Second World War sparked the creation of international organizations and international laws to ensure that such horrors would never occur again. The center piece of these international bodies was the United Nations and its regional and functional agencies that were designed to provide international guardrails to limit the use of force. The National Security Act of 1947 was designed in part to make sure that U.S. administrations played an active role in managing and even transforming the international community.
There was an economic component as well, including the Bretton Woods System, which included the World Bank to stimulate international development in those countries most devastated by the war. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was designed to manage international trade, and the International Monetary Fund was created to monitor the balance of payments. U.S. officials were at the center of all of these institutions, placing Washington at the center of the world of multilateralism. The current global trend toward isolationism and ultra-nationalism is threatening these institutions.
