Up to about 1990, the world was still living in the long shadow of the Second World War. The international alliances and institutions forged in the dying days of that horrible conflict had formed the basis for the Cold War, a time that world power was divided into two – the west and the east, roughly – and international conflicts could be determined based on that split.
Although Russia was an ally with Canada and the United States in the Second World War, helping to defeat Hitler’s Germany, almost immediately after the war, they were seen as the enemy on a mostly ideological basis because of their Communist government. An iron curtain was drawn across eastern Europe, made up of buffer states between Russia and the rest of the continent.
But despite that ideological divide, Russia, as one of the strongest world powers, was given a permanent seat on the United Nations’ Security Council, along with the United States, China, Great Britain and France.
The United Nations was a new organization, formed in 1945 to preserve peace and to prevent another world war. Several international organizations were formed after the Second World War, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance, the World Bank, which funds sustainable development and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which promotes global financial stability.
Most of these organizations were established, supported and led by the United States, which also created the Marshall Plan, which was essentially an aid plan from the U.S. to rebuild Europe. The plan wasn’t completely selfless – a strong western Europe backed by American money and protection was a foil to the spread of Communism, as feared by the western powers.
Fear of Communism and the booming post-war economy were also factors in positive societal changes, such as stronger employee protections and higher wages.
That situation governed the western world order from 1945 to the late 1980s, when the iron curtain dissolved, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States led and shaped a peaceful world order for nearly 80 years. Yes, there were conflicts, but they were for the most part isolated and contained.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, historian Francis Fukuyama wrote an article called The End of History, with the premise that events had shown western liberal democracy to be the highest form of government.
But today, we’re seeing how democracy can go wrong. Division in society appears to be a strong harbinger – when there is less common ground and each side is seen as evil, it signals something wrong in the lives of ordinary people.
Though our leaders don’t always want us to remember this basic fact, democracy depends on the people to keep a government in place. When most people are struggling, they don’t tend to be in favour of keeping the status quo.
If our leaders can’t fix the problems ordinary people are having – things like stagnant wages, high inflation, housing shortages – sometimes those leaders look for distractions, such as defining an outside enemy as the cause of the problems.
It is in times like these that it’s important to remember all human beings are more alike than we’re different. The same biology and families, the same terrors and fears and the same hopes and dreams unite us.
One thing is clear. Great powers that are secure in their greatness do not go after their best friends. Of course we need to keep ourselves and our country safe and secure, but we also need to attempt to find common ground, to understand what divides us, so we can build a future together.
The rise in Canadian patriotism is a silver lining. Vacations are being cancelled and cross-border shopping trips eliminated, all in the name of nationalism, something that is usually extremely subtle in Canada. People who never thought they would are flying the flag, proud of the maple leaf once again.
We don’t know what will happen next, but what we do know is that supporting Canadian businesses, taking our vacations in Canada and upholding our own democracy will strengthen our position. Finding common ground with each other will go even further.
Tracy Sherlock is a freelance journalist who writes about education and social issues. Read her blog or email her [email protected].
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