Since the end of the First World War there have been three attempts to reform the international order and to break the age-old hold of empire, hierarchy and realpolitik over international society, The Treaty of Versailles established the League of Nations and sought to make the world not only safe for democracy, but for the principle of national self-determination. In 1945 the United Nations Organisation was created and to the earlier objectives was added a system of economic governance and regulation. In 1991 the stated goal was to democratise the international order simultaneously at the local, national, and international levels. None of these efforts was successful. This book examines the reasons for these repeated failures, the persistent hold of the idea of empire over the human imagination, and the prospects for the future.