Putin’s war reminds us why liberal democracy is worth defending

Russia’s utterly unprovoked, unjustifiable, immoral invasion of Ukraine would seem to mark the end of an era — one that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In that post-Cold War age, Western ideas about politics, economics and culture spread across the world largely uncontested, and American power undergirded the international system. It was not a period of tranquility — think of the wars in Yugoslavia and the Middle East. But it was a time in which American power and liberal democracy seemed triumphant, and the international system seemed to work more cooperatively than at any previous point in history.

The Pax Americana began to wane for many reasons, including the rise of countries such as China and India, the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and financial and democratic crises in the West. But the most disruptive force has been the return of an imperial Russia, determined to re-create a sphere of influence in which it could dominate its neighbors. For the past decade, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been the world’s great geopolitical spoiler, actively attempting to unravel the rules-based international system.

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