That Old Isolationist

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The American lvhgazine

htB://www.american.com/archivei2008/rnrch-april-nragazine-contents/that-old-isolationist-t...

The Journal of the American Enterprise lnstitute

That Old lsolationist Tug

By Mctor Davis Hanson Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Filed under: World Watch

Americans are growing world-weary. But they may regret isolationism and protectionism tom orrow.
The United States is experiencing one of its periodic fits of isolationism. ln the age before missiles and satellites, we often felt that two oceans protected us from warring states in Asia and Europe. ln addition, for over a century our own frontier kept us busy enough. Both the Founding Fathers and waves of immigrants warned us against getting too involved with the aristocratic prejudices and age-old feuds of the Old World.
After the Civil War, the federal government turned our army into a tiny constabulary. The nation industrialized, and didn't much worry about the rising tensions between European colonial powers. We came late to the First World War. And we left abruptly upon its conclusion. The Great Depression and our collective sense of "llere Europe goes again' convinced the United States to sit out the filt two years of World War ll until Pead Harbor. Later, only the ris of So/bt and Chinese c,ommunism scared Anerft:ans enough to slay engaged abroad and not allo r a World V\hr lll to nulliff their victories against Germany and Japan. That postwar legacy of keeping the peace--given new life by the globalized spread of U.S.-inspircd culture, technology, and communications

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That Old Isolationist

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The American Magazine

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---xplains our present woddwide role. But lately we are grot ring tired of

it_

So once more there is the old isolationist tug. Atnericans are weary ofAfghanistan and lraq. We are the world's largest debtor nation. The dollar has plummeted. And our leaders shrug that an ascendant China and Russia are carving out sigiificant spheres of influence.

lnternationalism, whether economic or political, always rested on an odd, tenuous alliance of Americans. East Coast eliles of both parties made the argumont that our on n self-interest dGmanded integration with like-minded democracies around the world. That pragmatism was also bolstered by sudden fits of public idealism. Arnericans were occasionally whipped up by clergymen, leporters, and diplomat to stop ignoring challenges abroad-whether that meant a canal needed building in panima, ilie British were being bombed in London, or Asians were being o\rerrun by communists. VVe felt we had the p-o{er to address these dangers and opportunities---and to make ourseh/es more secure and e\,/en prosperous in the bargain.
But there wes always a loose coalition of Anericans who just wanted to stay home. ConseNaths distrusted big go\remment ---ngagement abroad usually meant more ta)(es, an expensive military apparalus, and the risk of sunendering sovereignty to multinational institutions. lsolationists accepted that, in theory n might make things better abroad, but they siill felt th;t tie long-term political and tinancial costs would hardly be worth the effod.
tuleanwhile, by the 2oth century the American leff increasingly bought into isolationism--.but for quite different reasons. They made the argument, especially after Metnam, that the United States was hardly a moral state, and thus hd no business spreading its pathologies abroad. Moreo\rer, govemment could do better by diverting ils military oeenditures to entiflements and social programs here at home. No wonder a Noam Chomsky no\ often sounds like a Ron Paul or The Nation sometimes apes The Arnerican Conservath/e.

Anerica, and Africa into the Westem sphere of consumer capitalism and @nsnsual go\,/emment.

abroad-at first to repair the devastation of the war and to combat global communism, and later to bring states in nsia, Latin
But there are nel t dangers to this internationalism, and they don't just come from the far let and right. The mainstream of the ?emocratic Party sees political ad\ntage in damning George W Bush for his post-9/11 commitment to spreading democracy. Republican realists agree, and want to deal wilh the world as it is, rather than what it might become.

Since World Wbr ll, mainstream Demodats and Republicans havs resisted these fringes and insisted on engagement

Thete is also another nel isolationist impulse--grdring American anger at Europe. Th European Union's economy, po.pulation, and teffitory are getting larger than our o/r,n. Yet the EU spends little on its self-defense, preferring in$;d to in\st billions in entitlements and in protec,ting European agriculture.
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That Old Isolationist

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The American Magazine

h@://www.arnericancom/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/ttrat-old-isolationist-t...

ln the heafi ofthe most ardent intemationalist there no grolrrs the feeling that it might just be good for Europe or South Korea to defend itself---nd for once take the flak that concrete action, not amchair mordtind, invites. Arnericans of anery persuasion are beginning to think that a reduc{ion in our global profile might be both profitable for ourselves and also good medicine for our friends-like when 3$something-year-old children are linally asked to move out of the house and make thiir ovn car

paymnts.

Still, the new isolationists and protectionists do not answer hon the WesGrnized world would deal with China without American leadership and pofler. Vvho would contain lunatic regimes rising in south America, or lslamic terrorism, or petro-rich Middle Eastern autocracies seeking the bomb? What would be the global consequences of curtailing the lucrati',,", *ide-open Anerican market for lndia, China, and other emerging po rs?
B_ut then isolationism and protec{ionism never do evoke such long{erm wonie6. They have always follor.{ed short-term outbursts of emotion that may feel good in the here and no$, but are sorely regretted later

Victor Davis Hanson is a

t*i$ent of the 2OO7 Nationat

Humanities Medal.

lmage by Daffen VvamboldvThe Bergman Group.

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