Expansionism, Isolationism And Exceptionalism Analysis

Expansionism, Isolationism and Exceptionalism: Dissonance in the American Self-Concept

Each individual maintains within his own psyche an idea of who he is, an idea of his essential character which psychologists refer to as his ‘self-concept’. Actions he takes in life which are in line with this ideal of the self serve to further reinforce it, while those actions which fall outside the scope of this model provoke an uncomfortable tension in the mind between what impulse or necessity has caused him to do and this ideal of who he is on a fundamental level. In much the same way that Liberalism conceptualizes the nation as a collective of individuals, people, perhaps particularly Americans, have a strong and guiding notion of who they are collectively

Americans, having had the drive and the vision to emigrate here from abroad, were distinct in character and mettle from Europeans. While this belief tended to be particularly prevalent in the northern American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War, by midway through its undertaking, when the idea of an eventual reconciliation with England was abandoned, it increasingly became true for all Americans. Once England had made it clear that there would be no outcome other than victory for one side and defeat the other, America fully embraced the philosophical fervor that characterized the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, which not coincidentally was reaching its apex just as America was coming into being. An era characterized by the passionate interest in philosophy, science, and rational thought to which, its adherent’s argued, all mankind should strive towards, in Europe it was seen as having been constrained by the bonds of outmoded restraints such as Absolute Monarchies and oppressive religious hierarchies like the Catholic Church. America, its founding fathers asserted, would be the first nation where the ideals of the Enlightenment could fully flower without the smothering constraints of decayed and decadent

America, despite having reaped great benefits from their folly, had no desire to follow in their footsteps in this respect, and in fact their foolhardiness doubtless only served to reinforce the notion of the inherent decayed quality of the power structures of the European nations. As Mead says in ‘American Foreign Policy Legacy’, “Far from lacking a foreign policy, the united States has had a successful history in international relations. After a rocky start, the young American republic quickly established itself as a force with which to be reckoned. The revolutionaries shrewdly exploited tensions in European politics to build a coalition with the French and others against Britain... During subsequent decades, American diplomats managed to repeatedly outmaneuver the United Kingdom and other European powers, annexing Florida, extending U.S. territory to the Pacific, gaining control of the Southwest, and thwarting British efforts to preserve the independence of Texas.”3 At the same time, it highlighted the practical, Realist imperative of solidifying its grasp on the continental United States and mitigating the ability of foreign powers from hindering their growth or using the Native American tribes to menace and stymie US