{"id":4906,"date":"2024-03-27T16:02:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T16:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/?p=4906"},"modified":"2024-03-27T16:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T16:04:39","slug":"isolationism-is-not-a-dirty-word-americans-have-lost-touch-with-a-crucial-strain-of-their-foreign-policy-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/?p=4906","title":{"rendered":"Isolationism Is Not a Dirty Word: Americans have lost touch with a crucial strain of their foreign-policy tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Author:<\/b> Charles A. Kupchan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Affiliation:<\/b> Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Organization\/Publisher: <\/b>The Atlantic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Date\/Place:<\/b> September 27, 2020\/USA<\/span><\/p>\n

Type of Literature:<\/b> Article<\/span><\/p>\n

Word Count:<\/b> 6780<\/span><\/p>\n

Link:<\/b>https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/virtue-isolationism\/616499\/<\/span><\/a>  <\/span><\/p>

Keywords<\/b>: <\/span>Isolationism, Protectionism, Unilateralism, Liberal Internationalism and the US Grand Strategy Debates <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Brief:<\/b><\/p>\n

This lengthy article is based on the content of Charles Kupchan\u2019s recent book “Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World” (2020, Council on Foreign Relations Publications). This article (and book) comes in the context of the current debate inside the United States about what strategy can bring the country the most benefits, the least harm, and preserve as much as possible its strength, prosperity, and global leadership amid the current domestic and global challenges it faces. Such challenges include the deterioration of wages and living standard of the American citizen, pandemics, endless foreign wars, terrorist and cyber attacks. Kupchan argues that isolationism\u2014which has dominated the Trump administration\u2019s grand strategy after decades of the US\u2019 liberal entanglement with the world\u2014is neither an alien paradigm nor an unfamiliar trend for the US, as isolationism is an integral part of the history and “DNA” of this country. Given the dominance of liberal internationalism (which advocates for deep engagement in global affairs and the US global leadership) over the US grand strategy for seven decades, isolationism today has become a dirty and pariah word that brings a lot of ridicule to its advocates and questioning of his patriotism; just as it happened with Trump when he questioned the value of the nation’s foreign alliances and called for the return of American forces to the homeland. The author argues that the critical situation the US is facing today\u2014due to the mistakes of excessive foreign engagement and expansion under the leadership of liberal internationalists\u2014forces Americans to explore their history again and rehabilitate isolationism, which had many positive aspects. Consequently, a realist strategy that searches for common ground between the inward tendency of isolationism and liberal internationalism with its over-opening and extending outward, would guarantee the continuation of American greatness. The article explains, in detail, the reasons and contexts standing behind American isolationism, from the founding of the state to the famous attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941, after which the US emerged from its isolationism. Since then, isolationism has become an unrealistic perspective for Americans. The article also sheds light on the great benefits that America has historically reaped from isolationism. Since the founding of the nation until the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Americans had restricted the scope of their foreign ambitions to international trade and steady geographical expansion in North America. There were objections from Congress and the executive power to the issue of expanding toward Mexico and the neighboring Caribbean regions; so instead of running the world, the Americans fled from it. The geographical characteristics of the country, surrounded by two huge oceans as a protective shield and benign\/weak neighbors, contributed to the strengthening of American isolationism and pushed the founding fathers to concentrate efforts and fortunes on local development projects. The principle established at that time was derived from the historic speech of George Washington in 1796 when he asserted that \u201cThe great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.\u201d It was a tradition followed by American leaders after him, like Thomas Jefferson, who insisted focusing on the issue of \u201cPeace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none,\u201d and John Quincy Adams, who declared in 1821 that the United States \u201cgoes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.\u201d On the other hand, isolationism had its dark side as well, as America’s absence from world affairs allowed the growth of fascism and militarism in Europe and Asia in the 1930s, until it threatened the exceptional American experience itself. Therefore, the author believes that it would be a grave mistake for the US to repeat the same mistake by completely and instinctively fleeing from today’s world, especially since it is a different world from the past, in which huge oceans alone cannot be a shield for national security with the challenges posed by terrorist networks, intercontinental missiles, cyber attacks, spreading pandemics, among others. Protectionism and unilateralism have become commonplace in the world once again, which make the chances of solidarity between democracies more difficult, just as happened in the interwar period; additionally, the increase in nationalism and illiberalism we see across the world today is just as happened in the past when the US turned its back to the world before World War II. Nevertheless, given the excessive engagement in post-Cold War global affairs and the decline it caused in America’s global primacy, Americans also need to recall the conventional wisdom laid down by the founding fathers\u2014that standing apart from trouble abroad often constitutes the best statecraft. The nation needs to open a frank discussion guided by all the lessons of history to find a balanced strategy between complete isolationism and liberal internationalism with its strategic overstretch and hyper external expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By: <\/b>Djallel Khechib, CIGA Senior Research Associate

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Author: Charles A. Kupchan Affiliation: Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Organization\/Publisher: The Atlantic Date\/Place: September 27, 2020\/USA Type of Literature: Article Word Count: 6780 Link:https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/virtue-isolationism\/616499\/   Keywords: Isolationism, Protectionism, Unilateralism, Liberal Internationalism and the US Grand Strategy Debates    Brief: This lengthy article is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":4907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-perspective-and-critical-research"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13-300x176.png",300,176,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13-768x451.png",768,451,true],"large":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false]},"author_info":{"info":["CIGA Staff"]},"category_info":"Global Perspective & Critical Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Global Perspective & Critical Research","comment_count":"0","rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13-300x176.png",300,176,true],"large":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-13.png",903,530,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"CIGA Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/?author=22"},"rttpg_comment":4,"rttpg_category":"Global Perspective & Critical Research<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Author: Charles A. Kupchan Affiliation: Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Organization\/Publisher: The Atlantic Date\/Place: September 27, 2020\/USA Type of Literature: Article Word Count: 6780 Link:https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/09\/virtue-isolationism\/616499\/   Keywords: Isolationism, Protectionism, Unilateralism, Liberal Internationalism and the US Grand Strategy Debates    Brief: This lengthy article is…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}