US Geopolitics

GEOG 220 - Geopolitics

US and international geopolitical space

This class• (Non)-interventionism• Emerging World Power

Next class• Cold War• 21st century

Main arguments

• Geopolitical narratives as instruments of foreign policy

• Discursive spatializations of the world

• Geopolitical narratives + diplomacy + military projection

US Foreign policy positioning

• Isolationism vs Internationalism

• Non-interventionism vs Interventionism/Imperialism/Expansionism

• Non-interventionism– Avoiding alliances (incl. with France to seek US

independence)

– Non-interference in foreign states’ internal affairs and conflicts

– Commercial engagement (not autarky)

Washington – Farewell Address (1796)

“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. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”

Predicting the failure of the League of Nations with an ‘isolationist’ US (1919)

Imaginary US Geopolitics

The domestic ‘inter-national’ dimension:=> geopolitical narratives towards ‘Indian Nations’ and

Territories

The regional dimension: Western Hemisphere=> geopolitical narratives towards (former) European colonial

powers and new independent states

The international dimension: World=> Geopolitical narratives towards competitors, esp. ideological

ones (Soviet Union)

Domestic dimension

• Indian Removal Act (1830)

• Frederick Jackson Turner “Frontier Thesis” (1893)

‘American civilization’ relationship with domestic frontier in the West

Zeitgeist (‘spirit of the time’): advancing a ‘free civilization’

Internationalized domestic dimensions:

Territorial acquisitions and annexation:• Lousiana purchase from France (1803)• Florida purchase from Spain (1819)

Þ ‘Manifest Destiny’ in the 1840s to carry out the expansion of US settlement of the (North American) continent, and beyond to help redeem the ‘Old World’ through the example of US values and achievements

• Further purchases (e.g. Alaska purchase from Russia, 1867)• But also military conquest and annexation (e.g. US-Mexican

war of 1847, incl. invasion of Mexico city)

Regional dimension:Monroe Doctrine (1823)

• Context: growing US strength, declining Spanish power (independence of most colonies except Cuba and Puerto Rico by mid-1820s)

• US President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams– Recognition of the new US states (Spanish-ceded)– Moral opposition to colonialism and foreign interference– Assertion of American primacy over the ‘region’ (Western

Hemisphere, with Cuba, Mexico & Central America primary concerns)Þ US as leading regional playerÞ moral right to shepherd and speak for the regionÞ conduit for all external interest in the region

Monroe Doctrine (2 December 1823)

“Of events in that quarter of the globe [Europe], with which we have so much intercourse, and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly, in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries, or make preparation for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere, we are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers... we should consider any attempt on their [European powers’] part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration, and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States.”

Thayer Mahan’s naval power doctrine (1890)

• Naval officer examining the role of sea power “Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783” (1890)

• Perceived US an isolated land power on the periphery• Believed that God had raised the United States to

world power for a reason• Advocates for a strong US navy• “I am an imperialist,” Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan

once remarked, “simply because I am not isolationist.”

US-Spanish War (1898) => Treaty of Paris => US Expansionism

Platt Amendment (1901)

• Conditions for the withdrawal of US forces from Cuba following US-Spanish war

• Results in Cuban-American treaty of relations (1903)• Restricts Cuban sovereignty– Foreign policy and commercial relations– Lease of US bases (Guantanamo)– Allows for unilateral US interventions (incl. military)

Open Door Policy (1899-1900)

In September of 1899, Secretary of State John Hay sent diplomatic notes to the major powers (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China. The Open Door Policy stated that all nations, including the United States, would be able to enjoy equal access to the Chinese market.

Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

“Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.”

US military interventions in Central America/Caribbean

Geopolitics and Internationalism - Isaiah Bowman

• Geographer assistant President Wilson during Peace Treaties in Versailles (1919)

• Movement towards internationalism– Training for US officials to see the world as a

unitary space– Build public support for internationalism– The New World: Problems in Political Geography

(1921)– Foreign Affairs (1922)

American Exceptionalism and Democratic Globalism

“America is a nation uniquely built not on blood, race or consanguinity, but on a proposition [freedom/democracy] – to which its sacred honor has been pledged for two centuries. This American exceptionalism explains why non-Americans find this foreign policy so difficult to credit.”Charles Krauthammer, “Democratic Realism: An American

Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World”(Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute Press 2004 )

By 2003, the goal of Democratic Globalism was: “Establishing civilized, decent, nonbelligerent, pro-Western polities in Afghanistan and Iraq and ultimately their key neighbors would, like the flipping of Germany and Japan in the 1940s, change the strategic balance in the fight against Arab-Islamic radicalism.”

Charles Krauthammer, “Democratic Realism:An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World”

(Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute Press 2004 )