American foreign policy - past & present

Author: Addason McCaslin

Where is the Bush Administration leading America? How does catastrophe catalyze political change? When must an administration supplant old ideas with modern thought? On Friday, April 22, University of Virginia Professor Jeffrey Legro '82 pondered these questions among others during his lecture entitled, "Why Great Powers Rethink the World," which was held in the Robert A. Jones '59 House conference room. An audience of Middlebury students and staff listened as Legro delved into the intricacies of governmental deliberation that inevitably follow significant moments in national and international history.

Legro asserted his belief that national ideas and ideology tend to endure. If something works, it remains in practice - "Old faithful" stays, he said. Change may only occur when traditional values fail catastrophically and cause widespread shock and discord. Old systems of thought must collapse under the weight of their own failure before the administration consolidates and implements new ideas designed to avoid old mistakes.

New ideas may lead to different approaches in foreign policy. Legro argued, "There are three ideal types of grand strategy that states can have [concerning international relations] - they can accept the dominant order and seek to integrate into it, they can reject it and seek to overturn it or they can remain outside of it and separate themselves from it." These three grand strategies represent integrationist, revisionist and isolationist ideology.

Legro explicated the United States' everchanging foreign policy over the last century, beginning with isolationism before and after World War I, followed by post World War II integrationism and today's possible revisionism. In the time around World War I, the United States remained largely an isolationist nation, staunchly avoiding involvement in the quagmire that was Euro-politics. Even though catastrophe struck with the outbreak of war, the United States' old values, its "Old Faithful" grand strategy endured because of the heavy casualties and terrible price of the war. New ideas could not supplant the old because the old ideas were vindicated.

Conversely, World War II ushered in a new era of international relations. Legro delivered FDR's emphatic reaction to the United States' previous isolationism - "What we did was a mistake." The United States thereafter integrated into the international order because it could no longer justifiably diminish its role in the world. For over 50 years, the United States remained a prominent world leader, but one nevertheless abiding by commonly agreed rules. However, September 11, 2001 may have begun a new shift in the United States' international role.

According to Legro, the U.S. government failed its people on September 11. Catastrophe struck the nation with unprecedented unfamiliarity and the old ideas failed to protect the American people. Consequently, we are living through the government's reaction to that failure, and it seems as though old ideas of integration and mere self-protection are being discarded in favor of more belligerent ideology. The increasingly revisionist Bush Doctrine openly espouses tenets of preemptive strike, unilateralism and the use of military force to change foreign regimes. Previous American policies professed reactive use of force, multilateralism and no imperialist tendencies to militaristically mandate foreign regime change. Legro said the new "Bush Strategy" may, if successful, become orthodox American foreign policy, but future failures and setbacks could augur significant regression and reduction of the United States' international prominence.

Brian Fink '05 shared his thoughts with the audience, "I've done some reading, and it seemed as though the Bush Administration already had some of their interventionist ideas before the attacks of September 11." Fink's comment suggests that forming new ideology depends upon more than just catastrophe. Legro agreed, "I think you're absolutely right. That's what allowed for the shift. You have to have some alternative ideas there [to allow for new consolidation]." Finally, Legro observed, "The Bush Revolution has not ended yet." Legro argued that people living in the United States today will ultimately bear witness to the future success or failure of the changes that the Bush regime has made to previous American foreign policy.