Big stick
Big Stick ( English for "big stick") is a term for the foreign policy of Theodore Roosevelt , referring to the use of the US Navy in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean .
In speeches as President of the United States , Roosevelt quoted an old saying:
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. "
"Speak gently and carry a big stick, [then] you will go far."
Applied to politics, this means that politicians with a “big stick” - in Roosevelt's case, the navy - can implement their policy without appearing dictatorial: the careful establishment of diplomatic relations and the affirmation of good intentions are achieved with a powerful military apparatus and one high economic power paired, which makes negative or hostile reactions to the diplomatic offer in a subtle way significantly more difficult. With this realpolitik- oriented negotiation strategy, Roosevelt pursued a successful expansion policy as US President.
Roosevelt's saying is first proven in a letter dated January 26, 1900 to Henry L. Sprague, a member of the Union League Club of New York. Roosevelt first used him in a speech as vice president at the Minnesota State Fair on September 2, 1901.
Roosevelt's “big stick policy” can be seen as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine . While James Monroe urged the European nations in 1823 not to intervene in what was happening in America, Roosevelt laid down in principle that the US had the right to interfere in the affairs of other nations in North and South America in order to prevent other nations from going there intervene. Roosevelt did not use this saying to spur eventual wars or foreign policy conflicts, but the imagination of many publishers and cartoonists was inspired by the idea of the "big stick". Both Roosevelt opponents and friends saw in the "Big Stick" the consequence that unruly nations could be made compliant by the show of force of the military. Spurred on by this, Roosevelt was depicted with "his" big club on numerous friendly and hostile caricatures.
See also
literature
- Henry J. Hendrix: Theodore Roosevelt's Naval Diplomacy. The US Navy and the Birth of the American Century. Annapolis (Maryland) 2009. [Hardcover]