This is a sweeping generalisation, IMO. There was something called Non-Aligned Movement. Countries like India and Yugoslavia were sovereign countries not merely theoretically, but in reality as well. Ulhas Joglekar
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No argument. I take your point. I was completely focused on the article's idea that somehow sovereignty was respected by the US in prior periods.
But then both India and Yugoslavia first had to fight for independence and then maintain it. And both followed familiar and not alien patterns of internal order (or disorder) in relation to their potential overlords.
Chuck Grimes