Victories have a way of proving all too temporary. Recall that during the 1930s it was the fascist dictatorships that seemed to be the tide of the future. While the Great Depression ravaged the democracies, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and Tojo flexed. 1945 put paid to their aspirations, and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. But rather than moving into an era of peace and freedom, we immediately lurched into four decades of cold war.
Generals are notorious for preparing to fight the last war.
Pentagon brass who lobby to carry on as if the Cold War were still at its delicious peak merit little credence. Challenges to liberal democracy will almost certainly be less apocalyptic than they have been during the post-World War II era, but they may, nonetheless, be nasty. The ideological battles to come, I wish to suggest, will be waged at a level even deeper than those of the past. Explaining why that is so is my excuse for a brief excursion into political theory. Although communism and liberalism have been sworn enemies for most of the preceding century, their fight has been internecine.