US Grand Strategy in the 21st Century by A. Trevor Thrall Benjamin H. Friedman

Author:A. Trevor Thrall, Benjamin H. Friedman [A. Trevor Thrall, Benjamin H. Friedman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351620031
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

The Founders’ vision

So how did the Founders envision the way in which the United States ought to approach foreign policy?

According to the consensus view of scholars of the history of US foreign policy, the Founders (and those who followed them) conceived of and pursued a foreign policy with two key pillars: (1) strategic independence (i.e., neutrality or non-entanglement) and (2) military non-interventionism abroad. This traditional vision guided American foreign policy for more than a century. In fact, conventional historical treatments hold that it lasted from Washington’s administration through at least the Spanish-American War in 1898 (Nordlinger 1995: 49).3

Many have called this approach “isolationism” – though, in truth, few adherents have ever actually called for US isolation from the world. Historian Selig Adler carefully warned that “American isolationism has never meant total social, cultural, and economic self-sufficiency. Such a concept has had few rational advocates and the very idea is nullified by the history of the United States” (Adler 1957: 28). Likewise, historian Manfred Jonas noted that “No American isolationist made a principle out of cutting off all foreign trade nor seriously advocated trying to attain economic self-sufficiency. None sought to close this country’s doors to immigrants or foreign travelers” (Jonas 1990: 5). Nor did it mean that the US would never go to war when the country’s safety demanded it. Yet, despite its lack of accuracy, the term “isolationism” has largely stuck as a descriptor of American foreign policy in this era. The label stuck partly because of its slanderous connotation rather than its descriptive accuracy: those with an expansive view of the proper extent of US involvement in the world in their own time (whether in the period before World War II, the Cold War era, or more recently) have used it to besmirch their more restrained critics.4 To be fair, though, some have attempted to use the term as a value-neutral description or even attempted to use it positively (Jonas 1990; Tucker 1972; Nordlinger 1995).

The strategic independence pillar encompassed a firm commitment to avoiding political connections, particularly “entangling alliances.” Although it was Thomas Jefferson who coined that phrase, George Washington’s paean to non-entanglement and neutrality in his famous Farewell Address provided the touchstone for American leaders throughout this period. But the Founding vision was not one of mere unilateralism and a desire for a free and independent hand in international politics. If that were the case, then the Founders’ approach would be compatible with that of some modern neo-conservatives, since they are often attracted to going it alone or tend to see multilateral institutions and their member states as barriers to American interests (when they don’t see those actors as auxiliaries to the accomplishment of US goals). But the Founders weren’t merely worried about alliances. They also wanted to stay out of Old World fights. As Adler noted in his study of isolationism, “One can probe anywhere into the writings of the Founding Fathers and be certain to come upon the suggestion that the United States, alliance or no alliance, should stay out of Europe’s wars.

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