The period it seemed invincible was fairly brief. During the cold war, the West wasn't especially "liberal" in it's interactions with the rest of the world. Po

The period it seemed invincible was fairly brief. During the cold war, the West wasn't especially "liberal" in it's interactions with the rest of the world. Post cold-war there was maybe a few years or less of Fukuyama-esque optimism. The Arab Spring looked positive and ended with most places worse than they started. So - not sure there was much of a window of invincibility. Unless of course you want to hark back to the Fin de siècle period. Imperialism was in full swing so that's controversial.