![]() ![]() It is time to reconsider the Founders’ approach and readopt it as the best guide to understanding America’s unique role in the world.įoreign affairs, that field of politics dealing with the outside world, is inherently different from domestic affairs. The Founders’ view, encapsulated in the idea of strategic independence, offers a way out of these unsatisfying and ultimately problematic theories and instead defines a prudential framework consistent with America’s core foundational principles. Taking a broader view, it is possible to develop an underlying consensus view of the Founders’ thinking about American foreign policy.Ĭontemporary thinking on foreign policy falls prey to a number of pernicious and false dichotomies-realism versus idealism, isolationism versus internationalism-that are modern creations and have no relationship to the Founders’ approach to international politics. Nevertheless, there was a core agreement about not only the nature of America and its sovereign independence, but also the cause of liberty in the world. Divisions on foreign policy were the catalyst that led to the establishment of the first political parties. The American Founders were deeply divided over the appropriate policies in foreign affairs during the early years of the republic: Alexander Hamilton thought America should build a stronger military and side more with the British, for instance, while Thomas Jefferson preferred diplomacy and favored the French. The concept of independence-that is, what we mean when we speak of American independence-has profound implications for how we understand and govern ourselves as a nation and how we justify and defend ourselves as an independent actor on the world stage. Independence implied at the same time separation as well as the creation of a new and independent country, living and governing by its own means and according to its own ways. While we tend to think of independence mainly as an important historic event that marks our separation from Great Britain, the Founders and subsequent generations had a larger understanding of what was signified by the national independence they were celebrating.Īmericans sought independence not only from Great Britain, after all, but also from military occupation, royal overseers, arbitrary laws, taxation without representation, and-as it says in the Declaration of Independence-everything that “evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism.” But in doing so they also were declaring their unity-or interdependence-as a people, a compact of states, and a new nation. Independence was the clarion call of the American Revolution. By sympathy and appropriate action, Americans would show themselves to be true friends of humanity. It would be a refuge for the sober, industrious, and virtuous of the world, as well as for victims of persecution. The United States would support, defend, and advance the cause of freedom everywhere. The honor of striving for domestic and international justice would give moral purpose to the American character. That purpose was to demonstrate to all mankind the feasibility of self-government and the suitability of justice as the proper and sustainable ground for relations among nations and peoples. But it was only with the constitutional rule of law that the higher purpose, or true national interest, of America could be realized. ![]() ![]() The national good included the common benefits of self-defense and prosperity that all Americans would realize by participating in a large, commercial nation able to hold its own in an often hostile world. Abstract: America’s Founders sought to define a national good that transcended local interests and prejudices. ![]()
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