Through the prism of two international developmentsthe emergence of the international volunteer movement and the forging of the Helsinki principlesthis chapter shows that Americans and Western Europeans continuously nudged one another towards new practices, although they were not always aware of their own borrowing. Regarding the Peace Corps, sometimes viewed as quintessentially American in its aspirations and navet, this chapter explains its relationship to British and Australian predecessors. Regarding the Helsinki Accords, the chapter examines how German and French leaders pushed the United States further in the direction of principles that it had been earliest to espouse. Liberal internationalism and Wilsonianism were not simply American exports, but rather global trends. Particularly during the Vietnam era, other nations were sometimes ahead of the United States on these principles and pulled it along. An international context increasingly shaped the political culture of the United States and its closest allies.
