Isolationism in international relations (Great Britain, Russia, Germany)

Although "isolationism" is a label usually applied to American foreign policy in the interwar period, very few states are as internationalist as they could be at all times: most would fall somewhere between the extremes on an isolationist-internationalist continuum. Placing isolationism into the context of international relations increases the number and variety of cases available to scholars in search of a better understanding of isolationism. At the same time, the availability of an option not to take part can alter the fundamental logic of international interaction, and the existence of states which in general do not act is problematic for theory-testing. In short, international relations research can benefit from the study of isolationism and vice-versa.; This dissertation is an enquiry into the sources of isolationist behavior. It examines three cases: Great Britain, Russia, and Prussia/Germany from 1815 to 1914; the United States and Germany in the interwar period; and the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991. Each of the major actors experiences either a shift toward isolationism or a shift toward internationalism during the periods in question; most experience both.; The results suggest that isolationism is not simply a function of unit-level characteristics: it cannot be understood outside of a larger context which includes other major actors and the status of the international system (or subsystem). In the American case, for example, isolationism was defeated not by Roosevelt or Truman or Vandenberg but by Hitler and Stalin. Predicting isolationist behavior requires an understanding of states' foreign policy worldviews--that is, their aggregated spheres of interest. The dynamic model used to predict changes in states' level of activity suggests that states should be most internationalist when their worldviews overlap (that is, have many issues in common) and conflict (exhibit opposite preferences on common issues of interest) and should be relatively isolationist otherwise. The model also yields predictions about changes in the (sub-)system within which they interact. In all, the predictions prove quite accurate: changes in worldviews prompt both changes in levels of internationalism and changes in the status quo.