Puritanical Approach
Historically the United
States' relationship to world
politics has been characterized
by puritanical notions of moral
separation and, in the 19th
century, by the fortunate
convergence of geographical
distance and British interests
which allowed a policy of
moral preachment and
political non-entanglement.
At the same time,
widely-shared beliefs in the
basically consensual character
of group relationships and a
tendency to define political
problems in terms of
technocratic and economic
criteria, gave an ahistorical bias
to American perspectives on
international relations and
consequently an impatience
with the political complexities
and compromises of various
regions of world politics.
In a sense neither World War
I nor World War II provoked
substantial alterations in this
vision. Both conflicts and,
indeed, even the trial of the
cold war, tended to sustain
such perspectives. Nonetheless,
the inexorable involvement of
the United States in the
vicissitudes of 20th century
international politics began to
erode many historically-held
assumptions. The ordeal of
protracted conflict and the
growing complexity and moral
ambiguity of political
engagement cast in doubt old
assumptions. Ultimately,
however, these challenges arose
less from developments in
Europe than in the "third
world," most especially
Southeast Asia.
