The phrase "new world order" was explicitly used in connection with
Woodrow Wilson's global zeitgeist during the period just after World War I during the formation of the
League of Nations. "
The war to end all wars" had been a powerful catalyst in international politics, and many felt the world could simply no longer operate as it once had. World War I had been justified not only in terms of U.S.
national interest, but in moral terms—to "make the world safe for democracy". After the war, Wilson argued for a new world order which transcended traditional great power politics, instead emphasizing collective security, democracy and self-determination. However, the
United States Senate rejected membership of the League of Nations, which Wilson believed to be the key to a new world order. Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge argued that American policy should be based on human nature "as it is, not as it ought to be".
[4]Nazi activist and future German leader
Adolf Hitler also used the term in 1928.
[5]