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2.2.3 Post-Cold WarThe immediate aftermath of the Cold War, accompanied by the apparent ‘end ofhistory’ – the triumph of democracy and market economics – saw the emergence ofa more muscular internationalism. This was supported by the strengthening of theUnited Nations Security Council’s role in international peace operations (althougheventually the UNSC would prove an obstacle, for example, to US unilateralism), asEast-West rivalries subsided. Western states, especially the United States andBritain, became more willing to use force to intervene in conflicts, and moreaggressive in the pursuit of spreading democracy.Anthony Lake, National Security Adviser in the Clinton administration (1993-2001)described US foreign policy at the time as ‘pragmatic Wilsonianism’, andcharacterised it as aiming at “expanding democracy and free trade, at defendingdemocracy from its foes, at quarantining repressive and pariah states, and atprotecting and promoting human rights”. 102 This may be compared with the writingof a US philosopher during the closing stages of WW1 about internationalism: “It istherefore the duty of the great nations to assume responsibility for the educationaland economic development of backward portions of the earth, in order that theworld can become prepared for an internationalism based upon the principle ofequal political, social, and economic opportunities for all men”. 103 Among theweaknesses of this perspective of internationalism are: selective implementationowing to limited resources; blind implementation of processes and policies indiverse cultures; and the potential for abuse by bellicose leadership.This form of internationalism underpinned international interventions in responseto humanitarian crises, such as that undertaken by Western nations of NATO in1999 in Kosovo, for example. The very idea of an agreed-upon concept of humanrights in whose name states could go to war represented a landmark for liberalassumptions of progress in the international system. Progress, that is, both withreference to individual claims as against state claims, and with regard to what is102 Cited in Stanley Hoffman, “The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism”, Foreign Policy, No.98 (Spring 1995): 159.103 William Kelley Wright, “Ethical Aspects of Internationalism”, International Journal ofEthics, 28, No.3, (April 1918): 354.63