The McCain League

I've noted this before, but the mostly very sound Princeton Project on National Security engages in this one unfortunate foray into the notion of creating a new international institution called the "Concert of Democracies." Creating such an institution isn't, I think, a bad idea per se but at least some of its proponents have developed what is, I think, the radically unsound view that such a Concert should arrogate to itself the authority to mount military interventions around the world without regard to the UN Security Council. Previous efforts to persuade some of the backers of this idea that it's an essentially neocon concept have tended to fail, but perhaps John McCain's endorsement of the "strong" version of the Concert (he wants to call it a League of Democracies) will convince them.

It's worth saying that along with being a bad idea, this is a somewhat silly proposal since the notion that countries like Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, etc. are clamoring to provide a patina of legitimacy for future American miltiary operations is obviously absurd. I doubt you'd be able to get any substantial European support for this idea, much less backing from the traditional anti-colonial powers of the developing world.