Full Article: PDF
Scientific Object Identifier: http://s-o-i.org/1.1/TAS-12-128-47
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15863/TAS.2023.12.128.47
Language: English
Citation: Tsagareishvili, G. (2023). Debate about the role of the USA in the system of international relations (Woodrow Wilson - Theodore Roosevelt). ISJ Theoretical & Applied Science, 12 (128), 370-375. Soi: http://s-o-i.org/1.1/TAS-12-128-47 Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.15863/TAS.2023.12.128.47 |
Pages: 370-375
Published: 30.12.2023
Abstract: This paper concentrates on the debate that largely determined the direction of the foreign policy vector of the United States of America. The 26th and 28th presidents of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, understood well that the United States had the power to mingle in the world's superpowers and set the world's foreign policy agenda. Both presidents tried during their respective presidential offices to finally free the United States from the all pervasive tyranny of isolationism, which had plagued US foreign policy and prevented it from attaining superpower status. The unprecedented scale of industrial development prompted the United States to conduct a larger-scale foreign trade expansion that went beyond the southern hemisphere of the world and reached the remote corners of the planet that were still unknown to Americans. Naturally, trade interests needed protection, which was quite unimaginable under the outdated isolationist foreign policy, so neither Theodore Roosevelt nor Woodrow Wilson had any doubts about overcoming the isolationist framework to protect American interests. It was another matter how, by what methods, and on what scale the state interests of the United States should be presented next to the superpower states. Holding such a debate regarding the US foreign policy was a special event for the United States of that time. The public, cut off from the world politics for many years, was not used to a qualified debate regarding the country's foreign priorities. Thus, the verbal fray between these two titans of American politics was closely watched in the United States. This debate can be compared to the debate between the realist Theodore Roosevelt and the idealist Woodrow Wilson to some extent. The realist Theodore Roosevelt felt that the United States could exert a powerful influence on shaping the agenda of world politics alongside other superpowers, while the idealist Woodrow Wilson believed that the providence had prepared the United States for a special role in building the great family of free nations. Proceeding from these two different views, the methods of implementing the foreign policy of the United States were also different. Therefore, this paper provides for the discussion of these different views and methods of the 26th and 28th presidents.
Key words: USA, isolationism, debate, foreign trade expansion, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson.
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