Lest we... forgot
In fact, however, the Chinese seat was held by the Nationalists. Within three years, they would be defeated in the ongoing civil war against the Communist forces. Mao's forces benefited greatly from the Japanese armaments that the Soviets left on the field, for them to claim. It was a credit to the United Nations system that the Security Council seat was taken away from the Nationalist pretenders and given to the Chinese Communists. That, however, was the last significant change to the UN made to reflect reality.
For all intents, the recognized international order continues to reflect the end of World War II. Few of the leaders of that era would believe the changes that have taken place. Germany is united, Czechoslovakia is divided and the USSR does not exist. The restructuring of the rest-of-the-world has been even more dramatic. Colonialism is dead. Meanwhile, the former British colony of India, for example, is a growing presence on the world stage. It is probably the most ignored of the significant powers.
The confidence in American power has never been greater. American military spending has never been so disproportionate to the perceived threats. Commentators have drawn the parallel with Great Britain in the nineteenth century and it is probably fair to say that America is in some sense the British Empire of the twenty-first century. On the eve of the First World War, Britain was perceived as the greatest of the great powers but its entry into the war on the side of the Entente proved to be less than war-winning.
AJP Taylor once commented that had Imperial Germany won World War I, it would have become a satiated power interested in nothing more than peace and free trade. The Federal Republic of Germany, today, seems to reflect such sentiments rather well. Perhaps if the Germans had been granted their "place in the sun" neither war would have come to pass. Alas, there were no international mechanisms available to achieve German goals without war and it is worth noting that the historical reality does not suggest a simple solution either. Instead, after defeat in two world wars and forty-five years of cold war, the Germans reached a status quo they could live with. In the process of fighting the rise of Germany, three great powers lost status: the French, the British and the Russians. While the Russians regained status after the Second World War, as the
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