THE EVOLUTION AND THEO-RETICAL FOUNDATION OF US FOREIGN POLICY
JAECHUN KIM
American Politics and Foreign Policies
Ideological Origins of USFP
• We can conceptualize ideological prototypes of USFP by utilizing two sets of polar concepts
- realism vs. liberalism - isolationism and internationalism…
Realism and Liberalism - 2 major interna-tional relations theory
Michael Doyle – 4 different strands of R and L…
Realist assumption about the natural
state of International Relations
- Natural state (i.e., status) of International
Relations is permanent state of war…
Why?
Because International Relations is Anarchy…
self-help system… In Intl Relations, we are responsi-
ble for our security
Security Dilemma
Arms Race
Temptation to launch preemptive strike (or preventive
wars)
Thucydides, “The growth of power of the Athens and
the fear this caused in Sparta made war inevitable.”
Peloponnesian War
Constant possibility of war!
-3
-3
0
-20
-20
0
-10
-10
C
C
D
D
Jane
JohnPris-
oner's Dilemma
DC > CC > DD
Liberalist Assumption about the Natural State of International Relations
International Relations is not a permanent state of war!
Even under anarchical conditions, there is a set
of natural laws…
Assumptions about the human nature Even Realism – Human nature is evil! Liberalism – Human nature is not that bad…
Mankind can progress…
Who is the most important actor in IR? Realism – Sate
Liberalism – State, but also non state actors are important
State as “unitary” actor?
Realism – State can be thought of and analyzed as unitary actor
Liberalism – State is made up of individuals and groups that have divergent interests;
State is “functionally similar” unit ?
Realism - States are functionally similar
units… Their primary function is provision of
“security”!
Liberalism – States are inherently different
units! Democracy and Autocracy are
fundamentally different…!
National Interests
Realism – It’s not that difficult to define national interests; national interests should be differentiated from interests of individuals and groups; national interests should guide the foreign policy…. ; there is less room for moral consideration in making of foreign policy
“A wise Prince knows how to do wrong when it
is necessary – ends justify means!” – Marchiavelli
Liberalism – national interests is a dubious concept;
Primary goal of the state
Realism – increasing power and security;
Liberalism – increasing power and security is important, but states should guarantee human rights and liberty of people
Most important variable in Intl Relations
Realism – power (or material forces) Liberalism – Power is important, but some
other variables are also important as well
Future of International Relations
R– Perpetual peace is impossible…!; “For realists it’s the same damn story over and over again!”
R – Any intl order not based on power (or balance of power) is unstable
Realist advice to foreign policy makers Balance of Power Politics! Realpolitik! Power
Politics! Realpolitik is the best foreign policy guideline!
cf. Liberalism – Perpetual peace is possible!
Liberalist advice to foreign policy making
International Order based on BoP (or material forces) is inherently unstable;
People can establish perpetual peace by
(1) promoting liberal democratic institutions
(2) liberal economic institutions
(3) and international laws and organizations
These are three legs of liberalism!
USFP Tradition and Pattern
* We can trace the evolution of USFP by using Isolationism vs. Internationalism and Liberalism vs. Realism
1776 – the late 19th c.
Strong isolationist tendency and Influence of (Classical) Liberalism
There was a consensus that it was in the best interest of the US to stay away from the Continental affairs
Thomas Paine: “It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions…”
John Adams : “we should separate ourselves, as far as possible and as long as possible, from all European politics and wars.”
George Washington (in farewell speech): “steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world” “by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”
Don’t participate in BOP (Balance of Power) politics in Europe
Why Isolationism?
Strong anti-statist tradition (strong tradition of classical liberalism) if the US becomes entangled in foreign affairs, national (federal) power would grow at the expense of the states (and people) Strong government will hamper civil liberties… Internationalism would subvert freedom at home!
Size, resources, and geography we can afford to be isolationist!
* The influence of American Exceptionalism revulsion against European BOP politics
We are different from (corrupt) Europeans! We are not playing that dirty game that they are playing!
We have a manifest destiny to assimilate others with our ideals and values…
“The New World had become ‘the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty,’ while in England ‘a corrupt and faith-less court’ abused liberty, and elsewhere in the Old World liberty was simply denied. Americans thus marked out as the keepers of the flickering flame of liberty” (Thomas Paine)
John Q Adams: “The US is a beacon of light on liberty, but even when we assume this re-sponsibility for the world, even in the name of freedom… we’re not going to be an agent of international reform… We will just be their role model.”
• The US is a Shining House on the Hill
But we can’t be interventionist like European powers! This is very different from Liberal interventionism of the 20th century
“Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America’s] heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” (John Q. Adams)
American Exceptionalism Get down with the dogs, get
up with fleas!
Americans never felt perfectly comfortable with realism
or realpolitik…
Two identifiable legacies of the long tradi-tion of isolationism
Intermingling of domestic and foreign policy
institutions
Amateurism toward foreign policy making; cf.
1946 Foreign Service Act
Unilateralism – Isolationism means no
diplomacy, no diplomacy means no multilat-
eralism!
Alexander Hamilton - The first American realist?
“…men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious…conflict was the law of life. States no less than men were bound to collide over those ancient objects of ambition: wealth and glory” “…develop the capabilities necessary to enable the US” to be “ascendant in the system of American affairs . . . and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!”
The US has to engage in protectionist policies if necessary!; The US should play ‘power politics’
Isolationism during this period does not mean that the US was unengaged
The US expanded its sphere of influence
The US also made it sure that the Latin America is in the sphere of American influence.
* Monroe Doctrine of 1823: “We owe it … to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the US and [European] powers to de-clare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
Created Liberia in the 1820s. Opened Japan to commercial relations in the 1850s.
Isolationism during this period means that the US did not take active role in shaping the world order!! The US stayed away from E af-fairs…
The USFP at the turn of the 19th century
Isolationism and liberalism under siege
: The rise of imperialism and interventionism
The US got actively involved in the game of imperialism and colonization!
Spanish-American War; The Philippines-American War
A significant number of Americans was op-posed to imperialistic policies
( legacy of liberalism!)
Elites resort to liberalist sentiments to pursue im-
perialistic policies.
William McKinley (before the Philippines-American War):
“I walked the floor of the White House night after night un-
til midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you… that I went
down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and
guidance more than one night. And one night it came to
be…[T]here was nothing left to do but take them all, and
educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize them as our
fellow-men…And them I wend to bed, and…slept
soundly.”
cf. “We must obey our blood, and occupy new markets and
if necessary new lands.” – Sen. Albert Beveridge
Open Door Policy toward China!
Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt
(A first realist president?)
In 1900 election, he defeated William Jen-
nings Bryan (who was campaigning with
anti-imperialist banner).
The first US president to embrace “unam-biguously” the principles of power politics!
“Roosevelt started from the premise that the US was a power like any other, not a singular incarnation of virtue. If its interests collided with those of other countries, American had the obligation to draw on its strengths to prevail… No other president defined America’s world role so completely in terms of na-tional interests, or identified the national interest so comprehensively with the balance of power.” (H. Kissinger)
Roosevelt Corollary (to Monroe Doctrine)
“…the adherence of the US to the Monroe Doctrine may force the US, however reluc-tantly … to the exercise of international pol-icy power.”
WWI,WOODROW WILSON,And Emergence of LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM
Impact of the WWI on USFP
The US was basically non-factor in the Euro-pean balance of power politics. Wilson had hard time mobilizing domestic support for the war!
But, The US no longer has the luxury of being an onlooker
European BoP does not work!!
Advent of Wilsonianism (Liberal Internationalism; Idealism)
14 points: “Making the world safe for democ-racy…”
The League of Nations and the collective secu-rity system.
We have to organize Intl Relations in fundamen-tally different ways!! The first attempt to put Liberalist Foreign Policy Ideas in practice!!
However, Wilson’s efforts to implement his vi-sion failed during his lifetime.
However, Wilson’s tradition left a strong legacy.
RETURN TO NORMALCY: INTERWAR ISOLATION-ISM
Resurgence of Isolationism In 1920 election, Warren Harding defeated Wil-
son. His foreign policy program called for a re-turn to normalcy.
Public disillusionment with the US engagement in WWI: Why did we fight European war?
Changing world environment and American hands-off approach
The US Congress passed a series of neutrality acts between 1935 and 1938.
Foreign Policies with Liberalist Flavo
1928 Pact of Paris (Kellog-Briand Pact) - The agreement sought to deal with the problem of war by making it illegal.
They regard it as “the perfect expression of the utopian idealism which dominated Amer-ica’s attempts to compose international con-flicts and banish the threat of war in the in-terwar period…. The Pact of Paris simply de-clared that its signatories renounced war as an instrument of national policy…. It con-tained absolutely no obligation for any nation to do anything under any circumstances.”
WWII, INTERNATIONALISM, RISE OF REALISM, LIBERAL CRUSADE
The effects of WWII
We have no option but to engage in interna-tional affairs!
Liberal Internationalism was back. Now Americans were enthusiastically plunged into the task of shaping the world to Ameri-can preferences. Isolationism is no longer a viable force in the US…
Advent of Liberal International Monetary
and Trade Regimes Established intl trade regime based on GATT
and also created intl monetary regime based
on IMF and World Bank. “If goods do not
cross the border, armies will.”
Not just for commercial interests…
Americans also created United Nations. Cre-
ated NATO and called for collective security.
Advent of Interventionism
Truman Doctrine in 1947:
“The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms… If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world – and we shall surely endanger the welfare of our own nation.” “I believe that it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pres-sures.”
* Importance of Korean War!!
Realism became dominant mode of thinking
Realpolitik We also have to engage in power poli-tics. Morgenthau. E.H. Carr… Henry Kissinger…! These guys are from Europe!!
Establishment of formal diplomatic relationship with the PRC.
Ends justify means: support of dictatorship!
Careful realists didn’t really appreciate Vietnam War.
The Limits of Liberalist Policies during the Cold War
JFK: (Alliance for Progress). “Our Alliance for Progress is an alliance of free governments, and it must work to elim-inate tyranny from a hemisphere in which it has no right-ful place. Therefore let us express our special friendship to the people of Cuba and the Dominican Republic – and the hope they will soon rejoin the society of free men, uniting with us in common effort.”
“There are three possibilities in descending order of preference: a decent democratic regime, a continuation of the Trujillo regime, or a Castro regime. We ought to aim at the first, but we really can’t renounce the second until we are sure that we can avoid the third.”
Jimmy Carter – moralistic foreign policy
Setback of Internationalism and Post-Vietnam syndrome
Erosion of the Cold War Consensus…
Give priority to domestic policies!
Reagan’s Power PoliticsRealism and Strong Interventionism Increase in Defense Budget; Developing
New Weapons e.g., SDI the collapse of Soviet Union?
THE END OF COLD WAR AND CLINTON’S LIBERALISM
Promotion of Democracy
The Democratic Peace theory inspired the Clinton administration's strategy of expanding the zone of democracy…
In his State of the Union Address in 1994, President Clinton noted: “Ultimately, the best strategy to en-sure our security and to build a durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere. Democracies don't attack each other, they make bet-ter trading partners and partners in diplomacy.”
Promotion of Democracy in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet Union is in the interst of the US!…
Promotion of Market Economy
Secretary of State Warren Christopher: “Americans
will be more secure and prosperous if democratic
institutions and market economies take hold”
Multilateralism
Nation Building (State Building) around the
world
Human Rights Intervention
Buchanan’s call for isolationism fell on deaf
ears…
911, REALISM, AND NEOCON
Realism of GWB
- GWB started as a classical realist! Denounced Clinton’s enlargement policy…
- “Enlargement policy had no connection to real-ity… it is an aspiration rather than a strategy.” He was very scornful of state-building efforts.
- Denounced Clinton’s multilateralism… Became increasingly unilateralist…
911 and the advent of Neocon
- Neocons are different from realists! - Bush has become a liberal crusader!?
Neoconservatism here…
Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World
http://www.futurecasts.com/book%20review%205-7.htm
How useful is Mead’s classification?
Obama’s foreign policy Smart power