A free country presents an implicit model to other countries, which over time encourages the people of those countries to direct their own political systems toward freedom and away from totalitarianism. As a hypothetical example, imagine the positive influence that such a model, if it existed, might have exerted on Russia and other Eastern European countries whose people desperately sought a replacement for discredited former Communist systems. Instead, the citizens of those nations were persuaded that their only alternative is "democracy"—meaning a mixed-economy scheme similar to that of the United States and Western European countries, with all of its attendant problems. Because the mixed-economy model has proven impotent to rescue their economies, political systems, and cultural attitudes from their dilapidated state in the wake of socialism, it appears increasingly likely that Russia in particular may return to totalitarianism.

Moreover, the government of a free society does not extend aid to totalitarian states, such as the subsidized U. S. grain sales that were long enjoyed by the Soviet Union. Consequently, totalitarian governments are far less likely to become formidable world powers. This effect is consistent with our observation in Section 3.9 that evil is fundamentally impotent and that destructive systems and institutions derive their only power from the unwitting support of good people and good institutions. Because a free society provides a positive model of freedom to other nations, while withholding support from totalitarian régimes, statist governments become less powerful in world affairs and pose less threat of military aggression against a free republic.