The fashion in phrases

The graphic charts the rise and fall of the use of the phrase 'international community' by counting the number of articles in The World Today that used the term in each year from 1982 to the present day. With Russia enfeebled, however, invocations of the 'international community' quickly came to be indistinguishable from the interests of the US and its allies. Its use spiked as the sole superpower imposed its will around the world, as in the Dayton Accords, which ended the Bosnian war in 1995, and the Nato bombing of Kosovo in 1999. The phrase had its last hurrah in 2011 when the US, France and Britain intervened in Libya to unseat Colonel Gaddafi. This operation was initially viewed as a success for western intervention, redeeming the sin of Iraq.