The average person in these countries are broader minded than they were in 1900. Democracy is more accepted. War is no longer thought of as beneficial to the human spirit. In a way the fears of Kaplan are a sign of the improvement in attitude. Nobody believes in empire any more.
Empire is now a dirty word.
Few believe that war is good for the human spirit. Bertrand Russell had been a little too pessimistic about that. I was one of those optimistic about Marxist oriented countries. I believed that they would liberalize, and they went beyond my expectations and liberalized themselves out of existence. I still see a lot of disaster around, and a lot of hatred and passion.