Then, in 2007, Senator John McCain raised the idea of a “League of Democracies” on the campaign trail, saying “it could act where the UN fails” without offering many more details. McCain may have been prescient, though a few years early. After all, Russia had not yet established a hardline anti-intervention policy. Moscow only abstained from the Libya vote, and supported a 2012 resolution to intervene in Mali, albeit with significant reservations about intervention becoming “standard practice.”

A United Democratic Nations would be composed of only the world’s most free countries: those who have had decades-long traditions of open, fair elections and institutions, peaceful transfers of power, well-established protections for all. The list is not hard to imagine.

The United Democratic Nations’ mandate would be to safeguard freedom and openness and to protect the voices who cannot express themselves in undemocratic countries: too often, it’s women and girls, ethnic minorities, and civilians trapped by combat. It would deliberate resolutions that support democratic institutions and protect innocents. In extreme cases, it could sanction the use of military force to protect civilians in combat. (Though, of course, all nations would reserve the right to use force in self-defense.)

Or think of it this way: a body of the world’s democracies would have so much legitimacy that it would make cases of worthy intervention—like Syria and Libya—easier, while making dubious interventions—like Iraq—more difficult.