A Ghost Of War’s Past

Versailles isn't the monocausal explanation for today's woes that Andelman thinks, but it was certainly instrumental. He's on much firmer ground showing how realpolitik in Paris set the stage for 20th-century cataclysms while Wilson—who, as the Allies' conscience, had a special responsibility to intervene—watched idly. It's also unclear why Andelman selects some players but omits others, such as the Kurds, to name just one ethnic group whose mistreatment in 1919 keeps them in the news today.

Still, although it took 80 years, most nations that wanted statehood from the Paris conference—Israel, Slovakia, Ireland, among many others—now have it. And Wilson's argument for national self-determination is no less compelling today in Darfur than it was in postwar Poland.

But have we outgrown the nation-state? World War II showed that ethnic self-government isn't always good (its flaws still echoed in Balkan genocides as recently as 10 years ago). This realization has pushed European leaders toward the EU, whose rules theoretically limit the bad things they can do. Andelman has nothing to say about this postnational movement (to be fair, it's hardly irreversible, and nation-states elsewhere in the world are stronger than ever), but you might call it Wilsonian blowback. Given his love for the League of Nations, Wilson would have liked the irony.

© 2007