Mao and Stalin were too busy purging tens of millions of their own citizens to develop the global reach that the US established post WWII, but China is certainly headed in the same direction now
That can certainly advance things.
I think you misread 'to' in this sentence to mean 'in order to'. The intent by the parent comment was 'too busy...instead of develop[ing] the global reach'
We should pursue a non-interventionist foreign policy and not force our way of life, which itself is a compromise between different groups, onto other countries. Other countries need to come to a different modus vivendi compromise between themselves and with us, and have as much right to sovereignty as we do.