Reviving Liberal Internationalism

This concluding chapter argues that from early 2002 until today, American foreign policy has been premised on convictions that are both utopian and imperialist in a fashion quite foreign to the liberal internationalist tradition as it existed prior to 1990s. With its confidence in the ease of a transition from authoritarian to democratic order, its insistence on a “just war” doctrine that overthrew the Westphalian system of states by legitimizing the armed intervention of democracies against autocratic states, and its redefinition of American exceptionalism from a defense of the democratic world to a world-order project that knew no limits, neo-Wilsonianism sabotaged the very tradition from which it had emerged. The question, then, is whether the liberal internationalist tradition can be resuscitated in such a way that it contributes positively to world affairs.

Democracy Promotion through Multilateralism

This chapter explores Woodrow Wilson's ideas of fostering democracy through multilateralism in the League of Nations—the principles of which became the heart and soul of what was to become Wilsonianism. According to Wilson's vision of political responsibility, democratic people would presumably be the best members of the League for a commitment to the common good as decided by reasoned discussion and compromise was the essence of their character nationally and so could be counted on to carry over into international institutions as well. However, as Wilson quickly learned, there was no reason to think that just because states were democratic they would easily agree on how to handle essential issues. Nevertheless, the Covenant of the League of Nations affirmed in its Article 1 that only “self-governing” peoples pledged to the conditions laid out for membership might apply to join the association.

Democracy Promotion through Progressive Imperialism

This chapter examines Woodrow Wilson's efforts, first as an academic, later as president of the United States, to promote democracy through “progressive imperialism.” A first step for Wilson was to embrace America's democratizing mission in the Philippines. Later, he would continue in this fashion after he became president and faced the challenge of providing stability in the Western Hemisphere during the Mexican Revolution and with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914—the same year that war broke out in Europe. Wilson's driving concern now became focused: how to provide for a stable peace based on freedom. His answer: through protecting, indeed if possible expanding, democratic government the world around as the best way to end violence among states and provide freedom to peoples.

Know Thyself: What Is “Wilsonianism”?

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Wilsonianism, which comprises a set of ideas called American liberal internationalism. More than a century after Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States, his country is still not certain how to understand the important legacy for the country's foreign policy of the tradition that bears his name. Wilsonianism remains a living ideology whose interpretation continues either to motivate, or to serve as a cover for, a broad range of American foreign policy decisions. However, if there is no consensus on what the tradition stands for, or, worse, if there is a consensus but its claims to be part of the tradition are not borne out by the history of Wilsonianism from Wilson's day until the late 1980s, then clearly a debate is in order to provide clarity and purpose to American thinking about world affairs today.

From Theory to Practice: Neo-Wilsonianism in the White House, 2001–2017

This chapter examines neo-Wilsonianism in the White House, considering the Bush Doctrine—often referred to as the National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, or NSS-2002. In the annals of American foreign policy there had never been anything even remotely like NSS-2002, its façade of Wilsonianism covering a far more aggressive imperialist claim for American exceptionalism than Woodrow Wilson had ever espoused, which in due course threatened to destroy altogether the credentials of good stewardship for world affairs that American liberal internationalism had enjoyed from the 1940s through the 1980s. One month after NSS-2002 appeared, the Iraq Resolution passed Congress with strong majorities in both chambers. Neo-Wilsonianism, born in theory during the 1990s, entered into practice five months after this historic vote with the invasion of Iraq that started on March 20, 2003. The chapter then looks at neo-Wilsonianism during the Obama presidency.

Wilsonianism: The Construction of an American Vernacular

This chapter looks at the achievements of Wilsonianism. The Bretton Woods system that integrated the world's market economies; the occupations of Japan and Germany that democratized them; the Marshall Plan that proved basic to the economic foundation of what is now called the European Union (EU); the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that established the world's longest-lasting voluntary system of collective security—here were the greatest initiatives in the realization of the Wilsonian vision, indeed the greatest moments in the entire history of American foreign policy. All of these initiatives had their roots in a liberal international conviction, and became, thanks to Wilson, a part of the vernacular of American power. At its roots was the conviction that the spread of democracy could change the character of world politics in the direction of a lasting peace. It was thus America's mission to assume the role of leading history in a progressive direction.

Wilson’s Wilsonianism

This chapter assesses Woodrow Wilson's Wilsonianism. At the heart of the Wilsonian project—the keystone of American liberal internationalism—is the promotion of democracy worldwide for the sake of a peaceful international system and thus for American national security. Here is the essential building block of the system of Wilson's notion of “collective security,” itself the best guarantee of world peace his generation could hope to provide. Through the League of Nations, Wilson proposed that a community dominated by democracies pledge itself to a combined military effort to preserve the international system from the threat of a devastating war, or at least to preserve the security of the democratic world. Ultimately, the enduring impact of Wilson's thought on American policy-makers makes him the most important president the United States has ever had with respect to its conduct in world affairs.

The Rise of Neo-Wilsonian Theory

This chapter addresses the rise of neo-Wilsonianism. The problem with neo-Wilsonianism is that it replaced the relatively amorphous thinking of liberal internationalism with a much “harder” ideology, one that gave its adherents a moral commitment to a more militant foreign policy based on social-science reasoning that represented a new argument in American liberal internationalism. Democratic peace theory, democratic transition theory, and the responsibility to protect in combination were a strong mixture, one with murderous consequences for the people in the Middle East and Southwest Asia as well as for American pretensions to hegemony in world politics. Neither human rights nor democratic government abroad was served by these imperialist adventures, nor was the national security of the United States in any way enhanced.

Woodrow Wilson on Democracy Promotion in America

This chapter discusses democracy promotion in America, which is the dominant theme of the Wilsonian tradition. The institutions and character that the spirit of democracy calls forth assure that the good functioning of the other aspects of liberal internationalism is reinforced. Woodrow Wilson's guiding concern from a young age was not simply to understand the historical origins of democratic life as a scholar, but as an activist to promote the well-being of democratic society and institutions at home and to do as best he could for the sake of world order to foster such ideals and practices elsewhere around the globe. In order to pursue his life's calling of explaining democracy to his fellow Americans so that its promise would be strengthened, Wilson turned himself to the complex and difficult task of laying out analytically the foundations of this way of life.