1. Wilson’s Radical Vision for Global Governance
- Author:
- Erez Manela
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- In recent years, Woodrow Wilson has returned to feature promi- nently in the public discourse on the role of the United States in the world. For students of U.S. foreign relations, this is hardly a sur- prising development. Wilson was responsible for articulating a vision of the U.S. role in the world—usually described as “liberal interna- tionalism”—that has remained, despite well-known flaws and scores of critics over the years, dominant in shaping American rhetoric and self-image, if not always policies, vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Competing foreign policy postures, such as isolationism or “national interest” realism, have surely been influential in particular eras and contexts. But they have failed to match the ideological and popular appeal of liberal internationalism, which has echoed so compellingly the most basic ideas many Americans hold about who they are, what their country is about, and what it should stand for in the world.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Governance, Leadership, and Liberalism
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America