Fourteen Points

Otto von Bismarck, a late-19th-century German politician, famously proposed a policy of Realpolitik in which morality would play little role in politics and international disputes would be solved by force (with “blood and iron” rather than moral principles). Wilson argues that good people committed to justice should oppose such a world where “might makes right.”

His first paragraph condemns Germans committed to “conquest and domination” (690). He asserts shortly before his 14 points that “the day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by” (691). In contrast, Wilson repeatedly emphasizes the moral idea of rights. Only a few sentences after he rejects conquest, Wilson repeats that the world needs a peace in which all nations can “be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression” (691).

Wilson promotes a vision of international relations in which powerful countries can no longer ignore international law. He calls for public diplomacy to prevent a handful of leaders from secretly determining the fates of nations (Point 1). Colonial subjects, despite having no military might, are to be given a chance to be heard (Point 5). Belgium is to be liberated to restore confidence in international law (Germany had guaranteed Belgium’s independence before the war) (Point 7).