The Best Description I've Ever Seen of American Foreign Policy

[A] self-righteous approach to the international system which oscillated between the desire to take charge of it and the desire to wash its hands of it. American peace sentiment thus leaked away into crusading in moments of confidence and into isolationism in moments of disappointment.

That's an extremely cogent aside on America in a book on British foreign policy, "Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945," by Martin Ceadel. Plucked from the middle of a long post by Callimachus at Winds of Change, who in turn was responding to this analysis of American foreign policy by Michael Reynolds at The Mighty Middle.

Comments

[realpc]

Yeah, it's really good.

I like this:

"Liberals believe in the psychotherapeutic model of foreign policy. Lie back, troubled nation or group or culture, tell us what's bothering you. You say you feel neglected? You say you feel oppressed? You blame America? Of course you do, don't we all?"

And I like his criticism of the other groups also. But this is so true of liberals these days -- they honestly believe they're so smart they could run the world without wars. Just talk things out, maybe get all the leaders together in a group hug.

And he's right about the neocons -- they are so naive. I've heard them say that democracies never fight each other, therefore we can end war by spreading democracy everywhere. Well isn't that simple-minded? Democracy is relatively new, just give it a chance. And how did they forget the American civil war?

And I agree with his statements about the paleocons and the realists also.

[Dave Schuler]

I think it's a misconception about American foreign policy. What's being described is not an oscillation, it's a reaction and counterreaction, searching for an equillibrium.

The default condition of American foreign policy is Jeffersonian isolationism. Americans prefer to go about their business: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All other things being equal we'd just as soon watch American Idol on TV. We don't really care what the rest of the world does so long as it leaves us alone.

That predisposition has consequences. Every so often the flywheel comes off and circumstances force us to notice the rest of the world. Things have often gotten sufficiently gnarly in our absence (or at the connivance of our Hamiltonian realists) that this awakening from our slumber often requires the engagement of our military. A slumber of the sort I'm talking about took place between World Wars I and II. The most recent such slumber is known as “the Clinton Administration”.

Since our military is comprised overwhelmingly of Jacksonian populist nationalists, who have high standards of honor and a generally low opinion of furriners, there's a pretty strong predisposition towards decisive action. For a general notion of what this is like read the last several posts from New Sisyphus.

[michael reynolds]

Dave's right that Americans prefer to ignore the world. I was in a conversation with some Spaniards a while back who talked about the Americans being worried that Europe was uniting. I had to laugh. I explained that the American people were blissfully unconcerned by what the Europeans do or don't do.

My point is that the American people need to outgrow this juvenile attitude. Things have changed. Those oceans are not as big as they used to be. You could ignore the world 100 years ago. Not anymore. We are as close to China now as France is to Germany -- a quick flight, a mouse click, a phone call.

[Dave Schuler]

I agree with you, Michael. That's why I consider myself a neo-Jeffersonian rather than a real one. I think that America needs to come to some accommodation with the rest of the world. I think that genuine agreement is very unlikely—we're so much an outlier.

I do have preferences on what the accommodation would be like. For example, I think the rest of the world should have a preference for the U. S. not being an active participant. For this to be practical Europe has to do something other than standing around waiting to hold our coat. That means, among other things, that they'll need to spend more on equipping and modernizing their militaries.