3. Global America

By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had become the world’s preeminent economic power. Yet for such a large and wealthy country, by 1890 the United States was in a curious position: it was an economic colossus, but a diplomatic and military dwarf. In comparison to the great powers of Europe or Japan, America was a minor actor on the world stage. That would all soon change. ‘Global America’ explores two phenomena—globalization and world war—that brought America deeper into world affairs. By the end of the period, in 1919, the United States had become one of the greatest powers of the world—and yet refused to play its part.

Introduction

This introduction outlines some of the main topics in the history of American foreign relations. It explains the importance of seven key themes—moral values; a belief in expansion and progress; racial and religious norms; the centrality of war; the influence of geography; the myth of “isolationism”; and domestic politics—in how Americans have interacted with the rest of the world. These themes are useful signposts to understanding an otherwise complicated history. The Introduction aims to explain these themes in as even-handed a manner as possible. In this way, readers will be able to address some of the most important topics and lay to rest some of the most common myths about America in the world.

5. Superpower

The modern era was the American century, but it was also very much the communist century. Between them, the United States and the Soviet Union held the fate of the world in their hands. If there was to be a just and durable peace after 1945, an understanding between Washington and Moscow would have to be its foundation. Instead, in a conflict quickly dubbed “the Cold War,” the world suffered through four decades of existential tension between the Soviets and the Americans. ‘Superpower’ explains why the Soviets and Americans moved from cooperating in a world war to resisting each other in the Cold War, before exploring the events and ending of the Cold War in the 1980s.

4. The American century?

Despite rejecting the internationalist marriage Woodrow Wilson had arranged for it with the world, America was still the strongest state in the international system. ‘The American century?’ explains how the myth of isolationism emerged in this period, and why it was so powerful. The Depression did more damage to America’s role in the world than anything in the decades before it, yet in the late 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt began rebuilding the structures of American power. Thanks to Roosevelt, during World War II the United States transitioned from a major, but often peripheral actor on the world scene, to one of the most powerful states the world has ever seen.

2. Expansionism

Over the course of nearly three hundred years, the people who inhabited what came to be called the United States enlarged their territorial holdings. As they did so, their belief that expansion wasn’t just inevitable but righteous took hold: progress was good, the United States represented progress, and so many started believing that the best thing for all concerned was to stretch US borders as far as possible. ‘Expansionism’ explains how the period between the War of 1812 and the Civil War unleashed these restless impulses and their violent effects across a continent, and set the ideological template for even greater expansions to follow.

1. First principles

The United States began its existence as an act of foreign policy. It is no exaggeration to say that the nation owes its very existence to the successful pursuit of war and diplomacy. ‘First principles’ explains that over a period of forty years, from the outbreak of revolution in 1775 to the end of war with Britain in 1815, the founding generation established and consolidated a new nation by responding to a series of international challenges. Along the way, they established a set of first principles of foreign relations: namely, unilateralism, exceptionalism, and expansionism. These would shape Americans’ engagement with the wider world for centuries to come.

6. Hyperpower and its discontents

With the Cold War over, the United States found itself in a position of supremacy unmatched since the days of the Roman Empire. American power was supposed to stimulate the spread of liberalism, democracy, and capitalism, creating a world order embedded in the sanctity of individual rights. History didn’t quite turn out that way. ‘Hyperpower and its discontents’ describes how the end of the Cold War also revived a set of dormant tensions fuelled by race, religion, ethnicity, nation, and tribe. Globalization, long suppressed by Cold War tensions, reemerged with even greater force, creating a foundation for US dominance, but also new opportunities for America’s enemies to resist that dominance.