George Kennan's Influence on Diplomatic Doctrines of the Cold War Era

“George Kennan came as close to authoring the diplomatic doctrine of his era as any diplomat in our history,” said former-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kennan, known for his “X” article, inadvertently coined the term “containment” which became the leading diplomatic doctrine of the cold war era. Since the late 1940s, America changed its doctrine and shifted to a more globalized approach to international affairs -- a system based on international cooperation, both politically and economically. These foreign entanglements are inspired, in part, by the Soviet-American estrangement, but also indicate a convenient opportunity to reorient U.S. dominance on the world stage by engaging with a host of other countries, including Japan and South Korea. In this paper I will hone in on Kennan’s definition of national interest and assess the adherence to a new doctrine of global governance. I will then examine alliances like NATO, ANZUZ, MEDO and SEATO to support my historical argument that the U.S. saw a convenient opportunity to reorient her doctrine for political and economic gain, and other nations who joined in alliance had a national interest to do so.

Kennan argues that national interest in international affairs boils down to institutional survival. To this end, he argued that national interest can be defined in two parts, the first, is “to protect the security of the nation, by which is meant the continued ability of this country to pursue the development of internal life without serious interference.” The second, and perhaps the most pertinent to the emergence of global alliances and partnerships, is to “advance the welfare of its people, by promoting a world order in which this nation can make the maximum contribution to the p...

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...alliances that emerged during the cold war era. MEDO, or the Middle East Defense Organization, was a proposal made by the United States that never came to fruition. Another alliance that formed was the Australia, New Zealand, and U.S. Security Treaty (ANZUS), which shared the same objectives as NATO but in a different region. Interestingly, both NATO and ANZUS still exist today and the alliance is still bound over global security concerns.

The United States’ objective through their containment approach was to build alliances for security purposes. I do believe this is the main factor in its creation, however over time it has become clear that these alliances have evolved to become more economic focus. For example, the United States still engages in a bilateral commitment to Japan and continues to benefit from trade that benefits the American economy a great deal.