The demise of the Soviet Union, and the dominance of the U.S.A, in military terms, does not seem to have produced a stable world, or a "peace dividend". If the "West" were to succeed in installing representative democracy, and a liberal capitalist economic regime, throughout the world, could we expect a better life for the world's citizens. If not, why do the world's leading powers invest such massive resources in this project?

There is no expertise a philosopher can provide that's pertinent to this question -- it's one that any thoughtful, well-informed person ought to be able to answer. But since you did ask a philosopher, and since I consider myself to be a thoughtful and well-informed person, I'll give you my opinion. I don't think capitalism as we know it in, for example, the United States, is a viable form of social organization. The U.S. knows far too much poverty and violence for us to claim that our society is a success. As for extending this form of social organization throughout the world -- that would be economically impossible, even if it were advisable from a moral point of view, which it isn't. Those who are comfortable in the U.S., who are confident that we live in the best of all possible societies, depend for our comfort on an obscene rate of consumption of the world's resources. With 5% of the world's population, we consume one-quarter of the world's processed fossil fuel. In my view, this problem...