Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

TheFutureofAmericanForeignPolicy 3 I 3

eachoftheschools.TheWilsoniansarenot]acobins,muchlessBolshe-
viks.]acksonians,representativesofpopularfolkculture,do notlink
thatcultureindissolublywitha singlereligioushierarchyorsect.The
Jeffersonianidealofthenationasa "purecityupona hill"isnotlinked
toanidealofethnicpurity.TheHamiltoniancommercialpartyisnotthe
possessionandplaythingofa hereditarycaste.Anunderlyingcommon
groundinginliberalvaluesamongallfourschoolsfacilitatestheircoop-
erationandhelpskeepconflictbetweenschoolswithinbounds.

TheMisfit

IftheAmericanforeignpolicyprocesshasmanystrengths,ithasat

leastoneseriousweakness,andonmorethanoneoccasioninAmerican

historythatweaknesshascreatedseriouscrisesfortheUnitedStates.

Thisweaknessisa consequenceofthepeculiarrelationshipofthe

UnitedStatestoworldorder.Aswehaveseen,thechiefinternational

concernoftheAmericanpeoplethroughthecenturieshasbeentherela-

tionshipoftheUnitedStatestothegrowingandchangingglobaleco-

nomicandpoliticalorder.Thehistoricalperiodswhenthatrelationship

isclearandreasonablysatisfactoryareperiodswhentheAmericanfor-

eignpolicysystemworkswell.TheyearsoftheMonroesystemwereone

suchera,andtheroughlyfortyyearsoftheColdWarwereanother.Dur-

ing those years Americans disagreed about many things, but they

broadlyagreedontherelationshipoftheUnitedStatestotheworld.

From 1823 toWorldWarI,theyagreedthatthebasicinterestsofthe

UnitedStateswerebetterservedbya worldsystemunderBritishleader-

shipthanbyanyfeasiblealternative.From 1947 to 1989 therewasan

equallyclearconsensusthatthefalloftheBritishEmpireandtheriseof

theSovietUnionlefttheUnitedStateswithnoreasonablealternative

buttoleada globalcoalitionagainsttheSoviets.

Inothereras,however,theUnitedStateshaslackeda clearconsensus

aboutitsrelationshiptotheglobalsystem,anddifferentschoolshave

stoodforfundamentallydifferentstrategicapproachestothecoreissues

ofAmericanforeignpolicy.Theseperiodshavehistoricallybeenmuch

moredifficultfor theUnitedStates,andourforeign policyhas been

muchlesseffective.

ThetwogreathistoricexamplesofsuchtimesintheAmericanfor-

eignpolicysystemaretheperiodbetweenAmericanindependenceand