Wilsonianism

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As Wilsonianism ( English Wilsonianism , or Wilsonian ) one describes a foreign policy doctrine in the United States , which was founded by the democratic US President Woodrow Wilson . The main features of this policy are largely written in the 14-point plan that Wilson presented after the First World War . Although the country initially fell into an isolationist foreign policy , numerous politicians - including a number of subsequent US presidents - have invoked Wilson's legacy since World War II .

History and content

US President Woodrow Wilson

After World War II, US President had Woodrow Wilson as part of the Versailles Peace Conference presented a 14-point plan in the year 1919th Among other things, this political concept was intended to avoid a future global conflict. Wilson saw himself as an internationalist in foreign policy ; that is, he advocated an active role for his country in the world. Through Diplomacy US interests should be enforced worldwide, a good economic ties with foreign countries and if necessary also the use of military means. He also understood this to mean the preservation of world peace, which the president saw in danger from concentrating exclusively on his own country.

Essentially, Wilsonianism comprises four points:

Wilson expressed this attitude with his proposal to found the League of Nations ; an international organization in which conflicts between individual states should be resolved through diplomatic channels. President Wilson himself was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year for his efforts to create the League of Nations . The President met with vehement opposition with his initiative in his own country. In the fall of 1918 congressional elections , the opposition Republicans won a majority in Congress. Despite the insistence of the White House , the agreement was not ratified by the Senate; the United States thereby did not join the League of Nations. The Republican Party, like the majority of US citizens, was very much oriented towards isolationism at that time and, after participating in World War I, rejected any interference in world politics. Many proponents of isolationism saw the United States protected from wars in Europe and Asia by two oceans and therefore wanted to limit themselves to friendly relations with its immediate neighbors Canada and Mexico . Not much was to change in this mood for the next two decades, especially since the world economic crisis of 1929 had already struggled with domestic political problems. After a stroke at the end of 1919, Wilson himself was no longer able to actively devote himself to the League of Nations and left the office of President in early 1921 after the end of his second term in office. His three Republican successors, Harding , Coolidge, and Hoover, pursued a policy of non- interference , both domestically and internationally. It was only after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, who was Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Navy in the Wilson administration, that a more active foreign policy began. With due regard for the mood of the population, however, he too limited his country's foreign policy engagement until the outbreak of World War II. With his Good Neighbor Policy, President Roosevelt tried above all to normalize relations with states from Central and South America, which have been strained since the beginning of the century .

Given the new political turmoil in Europe after the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 the League of Nations in fact had failed. It was not until the events at the beginning of the Second World War that approval of isolationist foreign policy began to wane. In addition to the isolationist (domestically more conservative) party wing of the Republicans, an (domestically liberal) internationalist wing also formed in the early 1940s. In 1940 the Republicans surprisingly put on Wendell Willkie , a political career changer for the presidential candidate who, once a Democrat, referred to Wilson's legacy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led the United States through World War II, also saw himself as an advocate of Wilsonianism. Instead of nationalism , Roosevelt tried to enforce the idea of ​​global dependence of all on all with his politics. Roosevelt took up the idea of ​​the League of Nations again and promoted the founding of the United Nations in 1945 as a lesson from two world wars. Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman , who signed the UN's founding charter and successfully submitted American accession to Congress for ratification, also referred to himself as the Wilsonian Democrat . Truman described the failure to ratify the League of Nations in Wilson's time as a fatal mistake. Although Woodrow Wilson ultimately did not see the manifestation of his philosophy (he died in 1924), US foreign policy was fundamentally reoriented towards unilateralism after the end of World War II, which made a significant contribution to the establishment of the Cold War on the western side.

Many presidents and politicians later invoked Wilson's concept; like George W. Bush at the beginning of the Iraq war .

criticism

Wilsonianism received criticism both at home and abroad. Isolationists in the USA saw their country's role less as that of a world policeman, but rather wanted to limit themselves to securing their own economic prosperity and peace with their immediate neighbors. They were particularly against participating in wars. Proponents of Wilson's doctrine accused the opponents of jeopardizing their own security and economic interests through a rigid policy of non-interference.

In Europe, too, criticism of Wilson's concept emerged. They feared that with this approach the USA would dominate other states in favor of their own interests and want to “impose” their economic and political system on them.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Woodrow Wilson: Impact and Legacy , Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia (English)
  2. ↑ Kevin J. Cole: The Wilsonian Model of Foreign Policy & the Post-Cold War World ( Memento of October 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (info text in English)
  3. ^ A b Franklin D. Roosevelt: Foreign Affairs. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.