Ironically, it is the United States that stands in the way of a political alliance, with a membership much broader than NATO, dedicated to the promotion of an open society. We are caught in a trap of our own making. We used to be one of two superpowers and the leader of the free world. We are now the sole remaining superpower and we would like to think of ourselves as the world's leader. But that is where we fail, because we do not observe one of the basic principles of the open society.
Nobody has a monopoly of the truth.
We are willing to violate the sovereignty of other states in the name of universal principles, but we are unwilling to accept any infringement of our own sovereignty. We are willing to drop bombs on others from high altitudes, but we are reluctant to expose our own men to risk. We refuse to submit ourselves to any kind of international governance. We do not even pay our dues to the United Nations. This kind of behavior does not lend much legitimacy to our claim to be the world's leader.