From the very beginning, the United States has been a nation of grand ideals. The foreign policy and domestic politics of the United States have been shaped by ideals like equality, manifest destiny, and democratic self-determination. These grand ideals serve as the driving force behind hallmark moments in American history such as the Declaration of independence, Louisiana Purchase, Monroe Doctrine, the League of Nations, and the United Nations. As a nation built upon grand ideals, America has hosted many political idealists that have tried to make the world a better place through the spread of democratic ideals and an international system. These idealists are often criticized by realists for ignoring concerns of national interest and balance of power. In the political sense, realists are those who are Although the proponents of political idealism and realism have always clashed in US politics, the newfound global influence of the United States brought their dispute to the forefront of international affairs. Following the first world war, the economic, military, and industrial strength of the United States established the nation as the leading great power in the international arena. Woodrow Wilson, the leading idealist of the time, framed WWI as the “war to end all wars” and promoted the concept of a League of Nations to prevent future conflicts. The League of Nations is an international governing body that seeks to prevent wars through demilitarization, collective security, equality of trade, and negotiation between nations. Despite being a noble idea, the League of Nation failed to prevent the outbreak of WWII and was rejected by the US senate. The League of Nation was rejected by the congress because Wilson failed to take into the realist concerns of American national interest and unilateralism into account. In A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy Joyce Kaufman states that the primary
Within the pages of One United People: The Federalist Papers and the National Idea, author Ed Millican dissects not only The Federalist piece by piece, but scrutinizes numerous works of other authors in regards to the papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. As a result, a strong conclusion asserts that the motives of The Federalist was to create a sturdy nation-state but above all, that American polity is far more complex than pluralism and a free-market economy.
In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.
Following World War I, President Woodrow Wilson became the mastermind for the creation of an international organization (Dudley 72). Eventually he was successful in the creation of the League of Nations and fighting for it to become a part of the Treaty of Versailles (Dudley 72). Although the League became a point in the Treaty of Versailles, the United States still had to ratify the Treaty to become a part of the League themselves (Dudley 76). Americans became split about whether the United States should have a place in the League or not, and the U.S. Senate had a decision to make (Dudley 76). On one side of the argument was a Democratic senator of California, James D. Phelan (Dudley 74). Mr. Phelan believed that the United States should join the League of Nations because it is the duty of the U.S. to uphold our ideals and support Democracy (Dudley 76). However, on the opposing side of this argument was people like Lawrence Sherman, a Republican senator from Illinois (Dudley 76). Mr. Sherman felt that the United States should not join the League of Nations because that would go against the policies of isolationism he felt the U.S. should follow, and he believed that the League of Nations would bring America too much into the conflicts of Europe (Dudley 76).
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States and held the office from 1913-1921. He became known as “the Crusader” due to his foreign policy theory that America should be a beacon of liberty and aggressively pursue the spread of democracy throughout the world. His policy would enable America to prosper economically and develop an international security community through the promotion of democracy in other nations. While former Secretary of State Kissinger writes in his book Diplomacy that 20th century American foreign policy has been driven by Wilsonian idealism, an analysis of 21st century US foreign policy reveals that, in fact, US foreign policy has been influenced by ideals that can be characterized as Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian as well.
The character of the United States is illuminated by the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wanted to build a government where people are free and where the government “derives its power from the consent of the governed and it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” (Jefferson, 247). T...
The League of Nations had officially been set in motion on January 10, 1920. However, the idea of an international peace keeping organization was brought forth far before this. For it was the President of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson, who delivered his famous Fourteen Poi...
One common theme, which stretched the American spirit beyond its borders and into the soil of foreign territory during both old and new expansionism, is the belief that the U.S. was destined by providence, power, and its own intrinsic worth to expand beyond her boundaries. Senator Albert J. Beveridge revealed this mindset in his 1900 address to the 56th congress when he outlined his faith that God almighty had chosen the United States of America to act as keeper and leader in his volatile time in world politics. Having this belief that the United States was divinely appointed to be a superpower was of similar proportion to the desire of p...
Stephanie Coontz’s, David Brook’s, and Margaret Atwood all discuss American cultural myths in their respective essays “The Way We Wish We Were,” “One Nation, Slightly Divisible,” and “A Letter to America.” All three authors elaborate on specific cultural myths, whether it is about an ideal family, an ideal lifestyle, or an ideal country as a whole. As a result of analyzing the three texts, it is clear that the authors critique Americas image in their own was. As well as elaborate on why the realistic view of the United States is being squelched by major cultural myths.
Realists disregard the fact that moral values guide ones foreign policy. They also believe that even though one might deceive themselves about considering democracy and morals, the matter of the fact is that people will always put their self-interest before anything else thus governments act upon things such as geopolitical, economic interests for example. According to realists, there is no higher authority to punish those countries that misbehave so a country can just do whatever it pleases.
The League of Nations sounds like a superhero team and in a sense, the goal that The League was trying to achieve could have been something straight out of a comic book. Originally proposed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, The League was born after some alterations. The League of Nations’ main intention was to bring an end to the war and prevent another one of the same atrocious proportions from happening in the future. Forty zealous countries joined this fight, but the most powerful country of all was not among them: The United States of America. While many Americans agreed with the goal of The League, many did not and those that did not were ones in power. The portion of the “mission statement” for The League that caused
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, led America through World War I and created the Versailles Treaty's "Fourteen Points," the foremost of which was the “League of Nations”. Wilson also signed the 19th Amendment allowing women the right to vote. Wilson considered himself the representative of the people and believed in creating a new world order of democracy. His ideas led to the philosophy known as “Wilsonianism”. This is a foreign policy which believes peace will prosper if given the right conditions around the world. His drive and belief in ideals is apparent throughout his life, and he is responsible for many of America’s achievements during World War I as well as many mistakes. (Sidey)
Warfare between two parties has always been a major catalyst of world history today. Specifically, Word War I had many dictators and world leaders that were not satisfied with the way things had played out, including Hitler, dictator of Germany. World War I began during 1914, and was between the Allied Forces and Axis Forces. It was the result of tension building up in the European front for decades prior to WWI. However, although Germany was punished terribly for WWI, it did not stop her from joining forces with Italy and Japan. These three powerful countries took action against the rest of the world, beginning in 1939, and initiated WWII. The League of Nations, designed to keep peace between the European fronts, failed to do its job. Therefore, the main reason world was plunged into World War II in 1939 was because of the League of Nations’ failure to act promptly. This brings to light that the effective response to aggression is collective security, and not appeasement.
People’s ideas and assumptions about world politics shape and construct the theories that help explain world conflicts and events. These assumptions can be classified into various known theoretical perspectives; the most dominant is political realism. Political realism is the most common theoretical approach when it is in means of foreign policy and international issues. It is known as “realpolitik” and emphasis that the most important actor in global politics is the state, which pursues self-interests, security, and growing power (Ray and Kaarbo 3). Realists generally suggest that interstate cooperation is severely limited by each state’s need to guarantee its own security in a global condition of anarchy. Political realist view international politics as a struggle for power dominated by organized violence, “All history shows that nations active in international politics are continuously preparing for, actively involved in, or recovering from organized violence in the form of war” (Kegley 94). The downside of the political realist perspective is that their emphasis on power and self-interest is their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical norms to relations among states.
Realism is one of the important perspectives on global politics, it is a notion about the conservative society and political philosophy (Heywood 2011: 54; Shimko 2013: 36). Besides, Gilpin (1996) claims that “realism…, it is not a scientific theory that is subject to the test of falsifiability, therefore, cannot be proved and disproved.” (Frankel 1996: xiii). The components of the realist approach to international relations will be discussed.
To begin with, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States is one of the most influential and known idealist in history. He is recognized as an idealist because of his admirable ambitions and his strive for excellence. He had a major role after World War One, when he presented his Fourteen Points. The Fourteen Points were meant to bring peace to the world and make it so that another tragic war like the Great War would not occur again. His Fourteen Points Speech is a perfect example of idealism because in the speech Wilson talked about free trade, self-determination, disarmament, freedom of the seas, and the most important part of the speech was the League of Nat...