A Study Of Fulbright's Diplomatic Thoughts

Fulbright is known as the American renowned statesman, whose diplomatic thought has the extremely rich contents, including actively promoting the exchange of international culture and education and the adopting of the"Fulbright Act"; Changing the mode of thinking in nuclear era and giving up the Cold War mentality; Objecting to interfering to the outside; strengthening the foreign economic aid and the opinion about the diplomatic power of the President's. These diplomatic thoughts have influenced the partial readjustment of the American foreign policies after World War II.Fulbright's diplomatic thought is the result of various factors, such as American culture, the growth experiences of his own, World War II and so on. The main aspects of Fulbright's thought lie in the establishment of the United Nations and the strengthening of international cultural and educational exchanges, who believes that the most important means of bridging the crack of the world order is the education exchanges all around the world. The purpose in doing so is to encourage the inter-ethnic mutual sympathy, to let the leaders who understand other peoples and their cultures, who could also formulate specific policy in a rational and tolerant attitude, come to the fore. As an American, Fulbright can go out of the centre to get into the surroundings, looking at the United States from the outside world, comparing the United States with other civilizations at the same level, throwing the vision from the United States into other countries and regions, it is commendable. It is worthy of recognition and drawing lessons from these thoughts in this era of interdependence. Fulbright should not be regarded as an absolute pacifist though who insists on strengthening cultural exchanges. We should regard him as a rationalist. His ideas show that he was deeply worried about the acts of the United States.Both Fulbright's thought on foreign affairs and diplomatic activities reflect the national interests of the United States, which we need to firmly grasp. It is unrealistic to make excessive demands on him beyond the national interests of the United States. Fulbright is the representative of the neo-isolationism of the United States. Neo-isolationism, the only representative of the decision-making level to promote a "limited internationalism" power, do not hold the leading position in the internal decision making, the role of which is very limited in the foreign policy. But it reflects an enduring trend of thought in the American society; hence we can often see the regulatory function of the safety valve in the foreign policy.One important aspect of Fulbright's diplomatic thought is about the diplomatic power of the President's, as well as relations between the executive and the legislature. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it took a great change of the views of Fulbright's about diplomatic power of the president after the "Gulf of Tonkin resolution", whose efforts played a certain role for the maintenance of the political system of separation of powers and the diplomatic power of Congress to some degree.This paper applies historical analysis and interdependence theory in the process of discussing the specific diplomatic thought of Fulbright's. In succession to previous studies, the article arrives at the following conclusions: Fulbright is a visionary statesman, whose diplomatic thought is rich and profound. He feels the pulse of the American post-war diplomacy. Although the voice is weak, his thought affects the adjustments of the foreign policy to some extent and makes it develop in a more realistic direction.