From Exceptionalism to American Universalism
We are going to look at a number of structural issues and problems relating to American foreign policy in the long term. We have to look at the long term; we will see how this foreign policy is structured, according to what guidelines, how the relationship with the world of the United States was built up gradually from the middle of the 19th century to the present day, and what has existed since the beginning of American history.
Exceptionalism is the idea that there is an American exception that the United States is a particular country with a particular destiny. This is not very original, but it is particularly strong in the United States and important considering the importance of the United States in world geopolitics and world order during the 20th century.
Universalism is the idea that a country has a particular destiny but that this country understands, is aware of the certainty and willingness to be a model for the rest of the world.
This balancing is something that is a structural balancing act in U. S. relations to the world and in the context of U. S. foreign policy. It is a country that, like any other country, has built a foreign policy whose objective is to assert its power and defend its particular interests, and at the same time a foreign policy that goes further than that, of power, great power and superpower. It is a foreign policy that defends national interests but goes further than that, presenting a model, in American foreign policy and the way it is implemented, this model should apply to the whole of humanity in a future embodying the future of humanity.
We will first focus on the notion of exceptionalism, and then on the crystallization of universalism, where this notion of universalism becomes preponderant in American foreign policy, especially as the weight of the United States will increase in international relations. Universalism will no longer only be a discourse disconnected from reality, but a reality with the growing weight of the United States in international relations and finally the dilemma of American foreign policy.
Components of exceptionalism
The American Democracy
American exceptionalism, the certainty of having a particular destiny, manifests itself with a first fundamental element that can be found in the origins of the creation of the United States. It is an element of long duration, a whole series of notions are put in place at this time, especially regarding the conception of freedom and the relation to power. One of the fundamental elements experienced by immigrants in what will become the United States is that they will find a "New World" where the despotism of monarchic regimes and in particular the religious persecutions that were then the rule in 17th century Europe do not exist. Fundamental attachment to freedom is a structural element of the real and lived understanding of the difference between the United States and Europe.
One of the characteristics of the Thirteen colonies is extreme autonomy, each colony had an autonomous history with its own specific organisation, which was a mixture of centralism in order to make the whole thing work and decentralisation, because one of the fundamental elements of migrants was their attachment to freedom and more particularly to individual freedom. The dialectic between centralization and decentralization is still strong in the eastern colonies of the United States.
The third important aspect is that when the Thirteen colonies declare their independence from Britain, the American War of Independence is both a war against England and a war against the monarchy. Finally, in the struggle for democracy on the one hand and the construction of foreign policy on the other, are two realities closely linked from the origins of the American Republic. There is the idea that every foreign policy starts with a struggle for democracy.
The U. S. government as it conceived itself from the outset has always had a dual objective: that power is both supposed to defend the country against the colonizer and the idea that it should not be too strong either, otherwise it becomes tyranny to the detriment of individual freedom. This centralized/decentralized couple is a cursor in the American political system that oscillates continuously over time.
If we look at the Checks and Balances system, it is a political system in which each power corresponds a counter-power with its balances. A power must assert power and centralization, and a power must protect the individual from encroachment by the other power. Every time a power is created, a counter-power has been created. The federal states come together to represent their own power and the federal state is unifying. There is always the struggle between the federal state and the autonomy of the federated states. They're a structural couple. The same thing is between the central government and the Congress, which represents the individual against the state. Inside Congress there is the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives: the Senate represents states, and the House of Representatives represents individuals.
The coincidence between empire and democracy is not a contradiction between empire and democracy. The idea of the founding fathers of the American Republic like Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Jay is that they are convinced they have achieved a perfect synthesis. The American Republic is a counterpoint to a Europe under the monarchical rule at this time in history. It is a perfect synthesis between affirmation of power on the one hand and respect for individual freedom on the other.
This design will very quickly be designed as exportable. The idea that the United States can, and must, export democracy is present in American politics from the very beginning because precisely the designers of the American Republic believe that they have achieved the perfect synthesis that must become a model for the rest of humanity.
U. S. foreign policy is absolutely not disconnected from what is going on inside. It is necessary to leave the distinction made by the theorists of realistic science that separates domestic politics from foreign policy. In the context of the United States, there is an intimate connection between foreign and domestic policy.
A modern laboratory
When one analyzes American exceptionalism there is also an intimate relationship to modernity which is important to understand which is structural from the outset becoming very important in foreign policy in the twentieth century and present from the seventeenth century. What will become the United States is being conceived and perceived by Europeans as a laboratory of modernity.
Religious freedom is absolutely fundamental. Those who emigrate to the United States are multi-religious people and dissidents. In the United States there are people with very different religious beliefs. The only way that the future "Americans" have in order to continue living together is not to impose a state religion. The first to do so was Pennsylvania in 1684, which was the first state to introduce religious tolerance as a principle. Many philosophers of the Enlightenment will see the United States as a laboratory of freedom because the idea of religious freedom and tolerance is an innovative initiative that will structure the thought of the Enlightenment in Europe.
The use of technology is early, immoderate and permanent in order to enhance the territory. The Americans, from the creation of the United States, will soon conquer a huge territory with a relatively small population. To develop the territory as it lacks arms, the machines will be developed. Very quickly, the development of the territory, natural and agricultural resources will be based on the construction of highly developed machine tools. There is a strong technological dimension, there is the idea that Americans are able to tame nature. The American relationship to modernity is a fundamental element of American exceptionalism.
The theme of modernity will be repeated throughout the course, especially after the Second World War. There is a dimension to bring modernity to countries that do not have it. Modernisation theories developed in the 1950s. The idea of modernity is absolutely central to the construction of American exceptionalism.