ABSTRACT
After every major war in which the Western democracies have been victorious since the French Revolution, they have insisted on the overthrow of the defeated government and its replacement with one more to their liking. Theorists argue about whether the determining factor in international relations is the international system itself, the power and nature of the particular states, or the individual people themselves. In practice, democratic leaders have attempted to change all of these after great wars. They have established new organisations, such as the Congress System or the League of Nations, to change the system; they have set out to weaken the enemy state by forced disarmament or territorial changes; they have overthrown enemy governments to change the nature of their states; and, after the Second World War, they tried to re-educate their peoples. Statesmen had no time or inclination to speculate on which of these were likely to be most effective. To avoid a repetition of the conflict, all had to be attempted.
