Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2021 July 25

= July 25 =

Pax Britannica
At the beginning of the period, the British Empire was the world's most powerful nation,[14] having acted as the world's policeman for the past century.

Does this have anything to do with the police? When it says policeman? -- 2001:8003:7432:4500:b946:6511:eb17:b8a1
 * It's metaphorical. Like when the USA has been accused of trying to be "the cops of the world". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:46, 25 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Or as Bugs no doubt meant to say, see global policeman. --184.147.181.169 (talk) 06:34, 25 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I'm rather curious about the origin of the phrase. The earliest I could find was:
 * In a word, this policy of our opponents would make the United States the policeman of the world. Rome tried to be policeman of the world and went down; Portugal tried to be policeman of the world and went down; Spain tried and went down, and the United States proposes to profit by the experience of the ages and avoid ambitions whose reward is sorrow and whose crown is death.
 * Martin H. Glynn, 1916 Democratic National Convention.
 * Can anyone do better? Alansplodge (talk) 11:22, 25 July 2021 (UTC)
 * A slightly later British version is: We cannot alone act as the policeman of the world (Bonar Law in The Times, 1922 ). Alansplodge (talk) 11:48, 25 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Benjamin Harrison in an 1899 speech in Paris about the Spanish-American War said that the United States... reprobated cruelty and persecution, but she has not felt that she had a commission to police the world.
 * Alansplodge (talk) 11:48, 25 July 2021 (UTC)
 * The earliest instance I've found is in the Victorian Review volume 13, published Nov 2, 1885: The view that England is the 'policeman of the world' must be adopted in its entirety, or not at all. CodeTalker (talk) 03:51, 26 July 2021 (UTC)
 * At a less global level, from The Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, March 30, 1871: To those who proposed that England should be the policeman of Europe, he replied that we had not the power to create an Army large enough to keep Europe in order, [...]&thinsp;. The term "policeman" is a metaphor for the role of peacekeeper. --Lambiam 07:41, 26 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Here's a Phil Ochs song from the 60s that still seems relevant: ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:52, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Four Policemen is relevant. The phrase was FDR's & Sumner Welles' original description from early planning for the UN, of what became the Security Council.John Z (talk) 04:17, 29 July 2021 (UTC)