'The terms of the connection': geopolitics, ideology and synchronicity in the history of US foreign relations

ISSN： 0955-7571

Source： Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol.16, Iss.3, 2003-10, pp. : 463-481

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Abstract

Since the very beginnings of the United States as an independent international actor, observers no less than American citizens have reflected upon and sought to influence the role of the new nation towards the rest of the world. Paradoxically in a country that prides itself upon its modernity, the consistency of such descriptive and prescriptive analysis is striking. This essay seeks to show some of the main lines of intellectual as well as popular debate, particularly in their geopolitical and ideological forms, wherein the United States is figured both as an oppositional force to other states and political systems and as embodying transcendent, supranational values applicable to all humankind. This particular form of globalization, represented in successive American claims to introduce 'new world orders' and demarcate 'American centuries', raises afresh the political question of whether the cultural values of the United States are susceptible to appreciating the challenges of paradigmatic change in international relations.