Q&A · 1:40:14-1:40:44

A postwar order without American belligerency

A short counterfactual connects wartime participation to American power over the diplomatic and naval settlement.

Question

How would the postwar world change if the United States remained neutral throughout the First World War?

Short answer

American influence over the settlement would be much smaller, making Wilson's Fourteen Points, the League of Nations, and the historical naval-treaty system unlikely.

Notes

A neutral United States would lack the leverage it historically exercised at the peace conference. European belligerents would have little reason to adopt Wilson's program, so the League of Nations and the later naval limitation framework would not emerge in their familiar forms. The answer makes postwar institutions contingent on wartime contribution rather than on American proposals alone.