US Foreign Policy in Context: National Ideology from the Founders to the Bush Doctrine

229 Pages·2010·1.068 MB·English

by  Adam Quinn

US Foreign Policy in Context
This work blends strategic analysis of contemporary US foreign policy with
long-term historical discussion, producing an important argument relevant to
the debates surrounding both the merits of contemporary US foreign policy
and the long-term trends at work in American political culture.
Rather than providing a detailed historical study of the Bush administra-
tion itself, the book seeks to locate Bush within the historical context of the
US foreign policy tradition. It makes the case for nationally specific ideolo-
gical factors as a driver of foreign policy and for the importance of interac-
tion between the domestic and the international in the emergence of national
strategy.
The contemporary element focuses on critiquing the George W. Bush
administration’s National Security Strategy, perceived by many as a radical
and unwelcome ideological departure from past policy, and its broader for-
eign policy, concentrating especially on its embrace of liberal universalism
and rejection of realism. This critique is supported by an argument, based
upon historical cases, seeking to explain American leaders’ persistent resis-
tance to the prescriptions of realism. Quinn argues for some causal connec-
tion between historically evolved ideological constructions and the character
of the nation’s more recent international strategy.
Providing avaluableaddition to the field, this book will be of great interest
to scholars in American politics, US foreign policy and US history.
Adam Quinn is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Inter-
national Studies at the University of Birmingham. He has previously pub-
lished articles in International Studies Perspectives, Politics & Policy and
Global Society.
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Subjects covered include the role of administrations and institutions, the
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US Foreign Policy in Context
National ideology from the Founders to the Bush Doctrine
Adam Quinn
US Foreign Policy in Context
National ideology from the Founders
to the Bush Doctrine
Adam Quinn
Firstpublished2010
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Quinn,Adam.
USforeignpolicyincontext:nationalideologyfromthefounderstothe
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ISBN13:978-0-203-86767-9(ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Introduction 1
2 International relations, history and national ideology 10
Introduction 10
Positioning within IR and American history 10
Defining ‘ideology’ 22
Continuity and change in national ideology 24
Therelationshipofnationalideasandnationalcircumstances,andthe
relevance of history 25
The usefulness of public statements as evidence 27
Conclusion 29
3 The Founders’ Era consensus: ‘A Hercules in the cradle’ 31
Introduction 31
National and international context 33
The Union as a means of excluding the balance-of-power
system 36
Trapped between titans: a divided America’s vulnerability to
European power politics 41
The Farewell Address and the emergence of the non-alignment
consensus 49
Consensus emerges: Jefferson’s embrace of Washington’s
doctrine 52
‘Our hemisphere … of freedom’: the Monroe Doctrine as a logical
extension of the Founders’ Era consensus 55
Conclusion 59
4 Theodore Roosevelt: ‘The nation that has dared to be great’ 61
Introduction 61
National and international context 63
The ‘strenuous life’ and the pursuit of national greatness 64
Military strength, restraint and the ‘soldierly virtues’ 67
vi Contents
Realism in Roosevelt 69
Moralism in Roosevelt 71
The ‘Roosevelt Corollary’ and American quasi-imperialism 74
The First World War, progress and the moral case for arms 78
Conclusion 83
5 Woodrow Wilson: ‘Conquest of the spirits of men’ 86
Introduction 86
National and international context 87
Moralism and idealism in Wilsonian foreign policy 88
The expanded Monroe Doctrine as prototype of global
Wilsonianism 90
Wilson’s justification of war entry and European entanglement 94
Conditional US engagement and the abolition of the balance of
power 96
Interests, peoples and international cooperation 100
Universal liberal democracy as a necessary condition of Wilsonian
order 102
‘Leader and umpire both’: American primacy and destiny 105
Wilson’s divergence from Roosevelt: ‘moral force’ and the role of
arms 108
Mortality, personal and political 109
Conclusion 111
6 The Truman administration: ‘In the struggle for men’s minds, the
conflict isworld-wide’ 114
Introduction 114
National and international context 115
From ‘one world’ to ‘two ways of life’: Truman’s inheritance and the
deterioration of US–Soviet relations 116
Truman’s conception of the Cold War 119
George Kennan and the sources of Soviet conduct 126
Polarization and militarization: the Clifford–Elsey Report
and NSC-68 130
Conclusion 137
7 The George W. Bush administration: ‘A balance of power that
favours freedom’ 139
Introduction 139
National and international context 140
‘A balance of power that favours freedom’: the National Security
Strategy 141
‘Universal, human hopes’: the universal legitimacy of liberal
values 143
Contents vii
Democratic peace: ‘This advance of freedom will bring greater
security’ 146
‘Common interests and … common values’ 150
Peoples and governments 153
The dynamic of historical inevitability 154
‘Military forces that are beyond challenge’: hegemonic US hard
power 156
Critiques of Bush 157
The road not taken: ideological choice and the Bush
administration 159
Conclusion 164
8 Conclusion: the Bush strategy and national ideology 166
The historical evolution of American internationalism 167
The influence of national ideological history on the Bush
worldview 173
Notes 176
Bibliography 202
Index 213
Acknowledgements
It is said that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. In that case
it is hopefullyagood omen that there areso manyothers for me to thank for
makingthisbookpossible.Onthesurface,thecategoriestobethankeddivide
into the personal and the professional, though such is the nature of the writ-
ing process that this line is far less bright and clear in real life than on paper.
The book began as a PhD thesis, and therefore the first and greatest thanks
must go to my supervisor and mentor at the London School of Economics,
Michael Cox. Apart from the essential assistance he provided in the develop-
ment and completion of the research project itself, he was also a source of
good example and sound advice as I negotiated for the first time the occa-
sionally treacherous waters of academic life more generally. For the role he
played in my introduction to a new world, I will always be grateful. Promi-
nent thanks must also go to my examiners, Inderjeet Parmar and Timothy
Lynch. Apart from enabling the examination itself to be as enjoyable as such
an event can be, their intelligent engagement with the thesis was extremely
useful in getting me started with the process of revising it into book form.
Thanks again to Inderjeet, and to his co-editor on this book series, John
Dumbrell, for their interest in and encouragement of the development of this
book from that thesis. Multiplying the numbers considerably, I must thank
the great many colleagues who entered the Department of International
Relations at LSE with me all those years ago, or followed me through the
door not long thereafter, and who were an invaluable source of insight,
warmth and wit over the course of my studies. For their willingness to share
ideas, offer solidarity through the occasional tough times, and laugh at my
jokes more regularly than I imagine they deserved, I thank them, especially
(in alphabetical order): Kirsten Ainley, Karen Barnes, Felix Berenskoetter,
ChrisBerzins,AnnikaBolten,BenBuley,DouglasBulloch,StephanieCarvin,
StacyClosson,PatrickCullen,AlexandraDias,BastianGiegerich,EvaGross,
Robert Kissack, Marjo Koivisto, Chris Mackmurdo, Tim Oliver, Sinikukka
Saari, Rashmi Singh, Jill Stuart, Marco Vieira, Bill Vlcek and Page Wilson.
Finally in this category I must extend a sizeable chunkof gratitude to Nicola
ParkinatRoutledge,theeditorialassistantwhowaswillingtofieldthenumerous
queries of an anxious first-time author with efficiency and good grace.
First and foremost on the home front, I must thank my parents, Jim and
MargaretQuinn,without whose crucial support– financialand otherwise –it
Acknowledgements ix
would not have been possible to begin the PhD research that ultimately
metamorphosed into this book, or to see it through to completion. Thanks
also to the rest of my family, especially my grandmother, Catherine Quinn,
and my uncle, David Langan. In their own ways, they all chipped in to the
dubious cause of making me what I am today. Finally, there is my adoptive
godfather Kingsley Dempsey, without whom therewould havebeen far fewer
extended dinners, bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and off-colour imperialist
jokes over the years in which this book waswritten. For his joie de vivre and
forhisboundlessgenerosityIamnotaloneinowinghimthesincerestthanks.
The research comprising this book was funded in part by LSE Research
Studentships and by teaching at that institution’s departments of Interna-
tional Relations and International History. In that time I was also employed
in various capacities by the universities of Westminster, Birmingham and
Leicester, before ending up back at Birmingham, where happily I now work
as a lecturer. Without all these sources of income, the numbers simply would
not have added up. I only hope I gave good value in return.
Lastly, I would like to thank all those scholars, too numerous to name
individually, who inspired, assisted and entertained me, either in person or
from afar, over the course of my research. Most of those who agreed to talk
to me were busy men and women who had no need to see me, and in some
cases may well now have forgotten that they ever did. I remember their con-
tributions to my cause, large and small, and will remain ever appreciative.
Such errors as are contained in this book – I wish there were few but suspect
there may be many – are of course entirely myown.
Permissions
Thank you to the University Press of the Pacific for their kind grant of per-
mission to use the material from the papers of Woodrow Wilson liberally
quoted in Chapter 5.