ow Wilson was the President of USA (from 1913 to 1921) during the crucial years of World War 1. He restrained his country from entering into the war for as long as two years before the German Empires submarine intrusion couldn’t be ignored. Even during the war he focused on diplomacy. After the war he came with “fourteen points” in which he presented an idea of peace making organization-multilateral international association of nations to enforce peace, this was instrumental in creating League of Nation that was precursor to United Nations.
However despite all his effort US didn’t enter League of Nation (the Republican under Cabot Lodge unfortunately were in majority in Congress) the point of disagreement was whether League would diminish Congress power to declare war. With League of Nation giving way to UN and despite the fact that
Woodrow Wilson was a visionary whose ideas set the tone for the world in the twentieth century. Democratic government, collective security, international laws…all these have became the guiding principles “the world must be made safe for democracy” (compare that with Bush’s narrow agenda of exporting/planting/bulldozing democracy “because it’s good for America”. The way things have gone past in recent times Woodrow Wilson looks like some mythical figure in a long lost story).
Woodrow Wilson’s influence was significant. He was probably one of the first few modern leaders who recognized the need for global community of nations. In the last few decades as the world gets global the response also will have to be global the reason why United Nation has become so significant and its effectiveness against common threats like global warming, terrorism, food crisis, nuclear proliferation, genocide, civil war…is substantial. Multilateral solutions and Agreements at the global level (like
