The Ideological Origins Of Foreign Policy:Progressivism And American Overseas Expansion

The overseas expansion of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was an important historical turning point in the history of U.S.foreign policy.This is based on the fact that this period is the historical starting point for the United States,as an emerging power,to emerge from isolationism,out of the Americas,to the world,and to grow into today’ s world hegemony.Taking the American-Spanish War and the first World War as important manifestations,the United States began to consciously enhance its influence and spread its values overseas.Thus,the overseas expansion of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was also rich in ideological overtones.There are a number of enlightening discussions about why the United States turned to overseas expansion,overseas expansion,etc.during this period.In China,the more popular view is that American overseas expansion during this period was the result of seeking overseas markets.It believes that the American overseas expansion in this period has a strong economic and capitalist color.In addition,other explanations emphasize the role of the growth of U.S.power during this period,the role of regional groups within the United States,the role of the growing power of the U.S.federal government,and the combined role of geopolitics and domestic politics.However,all these explanations have some defects.For example,the "market logic theory" of seeking overseas markets overstates the significance of overseas markets to the economic development of the United States at that time.In other words,it overstates the role of promoting the overseas expansion of the United States.Thus,in order to better explain America’ s overseas expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,this paper attempts to propose a new and complementary explanation.The essay proposes a theoretical explanation that is essentially a neoclassical realism explanation,arguing that the growth of American national power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ultimately drove American expansion abroad through the transmission of domestic liberalism ideology.Political liberalism can be divided into progressive liberalism and modus vivendi liberalism.For the United States,at least,progressive liberalism is more likely to promote large-scale overseas expansion than modus vivendi liberalism.Specifically,progressive liberalism can satisfy the will and domestic capacity of large-scale overseas expansion,but modus vivendi liberalism can’ t.The mainstream political liberalism in the United States at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century happened to be progressive liberalism as the progressivism.As a progressivism,progressive liberalism began to push the United States to adopt the "mission doctrine" to realize its ideological mission abroad and promoted the promotion of the power of the U.S.federal government,thus providing the willingness and ability of the United States to expand overseas and promoting the overseas expansion of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century.It is because of the influence of Progressivism on the willingness of the United States to expand abroad during this period -the "mission doctrine"-that the overseas expansion of the United States during this period has a strong ideological dimension.Progressive liberalism is also the ideological basis for the liberal country America to go to the world.