AMERİKAN DIŞ POLİTİKASI

America’s involvement in the two world wars, including the surrounding pre-war, inter-war and post-war developments, constitutes the two most important episodes displaying these inherent contradictions that have since become a permanent feature in the conduct of US foreign policy. The period between, roughly, 1914- the beginning of World War I- and 1945 – the end of World War II- has therefore been called by various historians “ the globalizing of America”, “the end of innocence”, or “the times of reluctance”, thus revealing the long settling-down period of the pendular character of the country’s foreign policy. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Americans had, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, remained loyal to the political testament of their first president, George Washington. In his 1796 Farewell Address to the nation, Washington said that “the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible” (Avalon Law). This was the political conceptualization of the physical and geopolitical isolation that characterized the young republic. Surrounded by unthreatening neighbors in the North and the South (Canada and Mexico) and vast oceans in the East and the West (the Atlantic and the Pacific) the American continent was isolated and self-sufficient, endowed as it was with rich natural resources that allowed a rapid economic and industrial growth. Marking the period 1865-1912, the take-off of the US industrial complex transformed not only the nation’s society but also set the foundations of its foreign policy: the objectives of this generation of Americans was conquering overseas markets and acquiring a series of naval bases and island protectorates that could guard the routes to those markets and, if necessary, could provide the military forces to win conflicts that would /did erupt over those markets (Lafeber, 2013, Preface). This quest for markets, and source for raw materials was later termed as the quest for an “informal empire” (Mc Cormick, 1990, title) with an exclusively economic preoccupation and -unlike European colonialism- no direct geopolitical aim whatsoever. In short, American expansionism was commercial to begin with and therefore not in contradiction with George Washington’s political isolationism. Therefore, the correct option is D.

The United States had suddenly become a dominant force in the Caribbean and a Pacific, even Asian power, by inheriting Spanish dependencies. President William Mc Kinley, who had no such intention in the beginning, had built an empire in less than four years and initiated the American Century. Paradoxically, though, it was his vice president and then successor, Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), who would be identified with American imperialism. The reason was Roosevelt’s explicit choice of Realpolitik over Moralpolitik. He indeed believed that the United States ought to be a great power rather than a messianic one. Skeptical about international law and the newly emerging concept of disarmament, he developed what came to be known as the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, proclaiming the right of the United States to intervene in the Western Hemisphere, against the interference of outside – meaning European colonial- powers as well as to protect US interests. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Introduced by a remarkable speech delivered by the President on January 22, 1917, known as his “peace without victory” speech where he proclaimed it would be better if neither side won as this would inevitably produce an unjust peace, the year 1917 brought about fundamental changes. Immediately after, Germany resumed its submarine warfare with a view to sink all ships in the designated war zone, while on February 25, the British gave Wilson an intercepted note from the German Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, addressed to the German ambassador in Mexico with a view to seek an alliance with that country against the United States, promising it to help recover territory previously conquered by the latter. Between March 16 and March 18, the Germans sank three US ships, with the loss of 15 lives. On March 20, 2017, the cabinet approved President Wilson’s decision to go to war. Therefore, the correct option is C.

The Senate adopted a joint resolution declaring war on Germany by an 82-6 vote on April 4, and the House approved it two days later by a 373-50 vote. War was subsequently declared on Austria-Hungary but not on Bulgaria and Turkey. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Besides the President, the American delegation included his special adviser Colonel House, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, General Tasker H. Bliss, 21 members of The Inquiry, and Henry White, a career diplomat who was the only Republican in the group as neither a member of the Republican-controlled Senate nor any prominent Republican was included. This was amply criticized in the United States as well as the fact that President Wilson himself was engaging his reputation directly by attending the conference, thus taking the risk of being implicated in the eventual failures of a peace treaty – a criticism not totally unfounded. The reasons lying behind the President’s decision included his desire of contributing personally to the new international order he had already sketched in the Fourteen Points and his fear that the victorious camp would care more for vindication over Germany than establishing a just peace, thus relegating the expectations of peace by people all over the world to a secondary concern (Clements, 1999, 197-198). Experience would show that his apprehension too was not unfounded and that the peace treaty would only partially reflect the principles laid out in the Fourteen Points. The first antagonism between Wilsonian America and colonial Europe manifested itself over the scope of self-determination: while Point V of XIV envisaged an equitable and human solution to colonial claims as Wilson’s wish was to place former colonies under the administration of small, neutral nations like Holland or Sweden and the supervision of the future international organization until their independence, major European powers objected to that. Therefore, the correct option is E.

International disarmament became an important objective for the United States throughout the 1920s. It all started with President Harding who convened the Washington Naval Conference in 1921 and 1922 which the foreign ministers of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan attended. They all agreed to suspend construction of large naval vessels and to limit the size of aircraft carriers. Therefore, the correct option is C.

It is true that the resulting rise of fascism -and communism- in the Old World cannot be attributed exclusively to the effects of the Great Depression as these were pre-existing movements exacerbated by post-war discontent, high inflation and unemployment caused by heavy reparations in the case of Germany, and reactions against the uncertainty caused by liberal internationalism. Seizing power either by way of popular elections (as in Nazi Germany) or violent revolution (as in Bolshevik Russia), both right and left totalitarianisms were mobilized against the theory and praxis of liberalism, erecting the State as the key institutional apparatus and imposing undiluted nationalism as ideology, with class or race as the defining terms of their respective struggles. Therefore, the correct option is C.

America’s inter-war and wartime president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) inherited the Great Depression, who was a Harvard graduate Democrat from a patrician family linked to the former President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt and himself appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy twice by President Wilson. At the time of his inauguration, national income had halved, the banking system had collapsed and unemployed people were standing in breadlines, with the most desperate ones committing suicide. While the President tried to raise spirits by his eloquence and buoyant personality, he immediately undertook action. In what was called the First Hundred Days, no less than fourteen presidential messages were issued, fourteen historic laws promulgated, and a hundred days later, the New Deal was launched (Leff in Brinkley and Dyer, 2004, 344-351). Opposed to the traditional American political philosophy of laissez-faire, the New Deal generally embraced the concept of a governmentregulated economy aimingat achieving a balance between conflicting economic interests. This was an experimental policy based on governmentdirected programs for creating jobs, reviving industrial activity, and guaranteeing minimum social security for the American people through various new federal agencies and social measures, while strengthening the labor unions. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Suffice it to follow President Roosevelt’s itinerary between the mid-1930s and the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which led to America’s entry in the war, to verify the accuracy of this diagnosis. FDR did not share the isolationist views of his people since the beginning of pre-war aggressions overseas. Therefore, the correct option is E.