And it is backed by the conviction that, in the nature of things, no engagement on the part of such a dynastic State has any slightest binding force, beyond the material constraint that would enforce it from the outside.

So the demand has been diplomatically phrased as a demand for "substantial guarantees." Any gain in resources on the part of these Powers is to be counted as a gain in the ways and means of disturbing the peace, without reservation.
The pacific nations include among them two large items, both of which are indispensable to the success of the project, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The former brings in its train, virtually without exception or question, the other American republics, none of which can practicably go in or stay out except in company and collusion with the United States.

The United Kingdom after the same fashion, and with scarcely less assurance, may be counted on to carry the British colonies.

Evidently, without both of these groups the project would not even make a beginning.