HOW AND WHY DID THE US BECOME A GLOBAL POWER?

HOW DID WWI IMPACT USFP? Why did the US become militarily involved in a European war? Woodrow Wilson ‘s view of the value of neutrality: Let us trade with both sides and stay out things Propaganda and politics Sub attacks, but mostly the Zimmermann telegram What lessons did the US take away from WWI? The American economy can tip wars decisively Winning war doesn’t win the peace Disarmament alone doesn’t secure the peace; neither does humiliating the enemy Wilsononian Idealist solution to prevent future war: (1) Self- determination of states as a natural right; (2) Isolationism by the US is no longer an option… It must guide the world to peace in conjunction with stronger international institutions (i.e., the League of Nations)

HOW DID WW2 IMPACT USFP? Why does the US get involved in WW2? How did FDR’s view of the US ‘s interests and obligations differ from Wilson’s? What did Pearl Harbor tell us about the future of USFP? Values finally matter again What are the major lessons and outcomes of WW2 for USFP? US hegemony can and should be protected with nukes… And everyone else should be prevented from having them We have a commitment to state-building and sovereignty to stop conflict

HOW DID WW2 IMPACT USFP? We can punish leaders, but not enemy populations who we must help to recover from war: IMF, World Bank, and… GATT We should have Collective Security but one that is conditional on the participation of the great powers: The UN and the Security Council Communism had to be stopped… And this allowed for defensive empire building which worked with America’s worldview Too bad the Cold War erupted before all of this had a chance to take hold?

WHY DID WE HAVE THE COLD WAR? The Cold War was a bipolar international system with two competing, balanced hegemons What’s hegemony? IR (power) and Gramsci (ideas and ideology) Why the Cold War? Ideology: Marxism vs. American liberalism Functionalism: The need for a unifying enemy & perception Soviet aggression: Exporting revolution, felling dominoes, building buffers? – Only some leaders wanted to change the world: Lenin, Trosky, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev

Why did we have the Cold War? US aggression was a key cause: Were we trying to export revolution, contain, or dominate? – What’s a security dilemma? – Truman Doctrine (1947): Containment – 1947 National Security Act: NSC – Marshall Plan (1948) – NATO (1949) – Korea (1950) US benevolence or an effort to rig the global system? The IMF, World Bank, GATT, & various nuclear proliferation and WMD treaties

WHY DIDN’T THE COLD WAR GO HOT? We didn’t cover this in class but I thought you might be interested… Overlapping US-USSR interests – Self-determination, and anti-imperialism, and freedom. Both sides had a founding ideology that supported these values in theory – Machiavellian pragmatism on both sides. Despite the rhetoric, both sides would deal with the other without letting values get in the way. – Shared understanding of stakes and boundaries: The Cuban Missile Crisis (1963) and Détente (post-Vietnam) – A desire to lock in the SQ (Both sides gained power by the structure of the UN, spheres of influence, and limited nukes) – Domestic power relations: Presidents and the Politburo gained power domestically.

WHY DIDN’T THE COLD WAR GO HOT? We were able to avoid head to head conflict by fighting proxy wars in the third world – Bi-polar systems are the most stable of international system – Deterrence & mutually insured destruction meant that head to head combat was to be avoided (but almost wasn’t several times – Was the CW bad for the 3 rd World? The non-aligned movement Dependency theory and dictatorships Ethnic violence and nationalism Reagan’s view vs. Jimmy Carter’s