America, the Bordered: A Review of Charles A. Kupchan’s Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World

Abstract

America, the BorderedA Review of Charles A. Kupchan’s Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World Rachel Li (bio) Like any other facet of United States politics, American foreign policy varies from one presidential administration to the next: from “the Monroe Doctrine” and “the Roosevelt Corollary” to “dollar diplomacy” and “moral diplomacy.” In recent years, the America First grand strategy has reflected a sudden push for isolationism following decades of worldwide American intervention. However, isolationism itself is rooted in the starting years of our nation, dating back to George Washington’s admonishment in his 1796 farewell address of “permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”1 From Washington’s speech to the start of World War II, the United States mostly stayed in its own geopolitical sphere. While the second half of the 20th century saw a dramatic shift towards internationalism, prolonged American commitments around the globe eventually led to recent calls for retreat. Charles A. Kupchan’s Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World thoroughly details the complete trajectory of past, present, and future American isolationism for the first time in scholarly literature on American foreign policy. Kupchan presents a nuanced thesis for strategic isolationism and selective engagement in order to remedy previous interventionist overstep, but not to overcorrect. In his work, Kupchan recognizes the flaws in the reasoning historically used to justify isolationism, yet he stays hopeful that the United States can one day share a better version of the American experiment of democracy with the world. While Kupchan presents a strong case for current judicious retrenchment, he holds steadfast to his goal of objectively presenting isolationism as a continual trend throughout American history. A professor of international affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and former member of the National Security Council under President Clinton and President Obama, Kupchan not only speaks from his extensive research but also his first-hand experience with recent domestic politics.2 The lessons garnered by Kupchan from the course of American history offer policymakers, practitioners, scholars, students, and general readers deep insight into the future of the United States in an increasingly globalized world. Kupchan begins the first section of the book by briefly describing the current context of American foreign policy. This contextualization not only familiarizes the reader of the place of current policy in American history but also allows Kupchan to circle back to current events at the end of the book, thus mirroring the cyclical resurgence of isolationism in the United States. Kupchan then links today’s global political landscape of today back to George Washington’s “great rule” of non-entanglement.3 But before laying out the specific origins of isolationism, he emphasizes a key concept that has always served as the foundation for U.S. grand strategy: American exceptionalism, defined as the doctrine that “the United States represents a unique experiment in political and economic liberty that it is destined to share with the rest of the world.”4 The question that has always been at hand is whether the United States should share its ideals by serving as an example or by actively spreading American ideals to other countries. Although American exceptionalism has manifested itself in policies motivated by diametrically opposed political ideologies, it has regularly been touted by politicians including both President Obama [End Page 134] and President Trump, demonstrating that at least one area of common ground remains in our increasingly partisan modern-day politics. After establishing the role of American exceptionalism, Kupchan outlines six distinct principles of American isolationism: “1) capitalizing on natural security; 2) serving as a redeemer nation; 3) advancing liberty and prosperity at home; 4) preserving freedom of action abroad; 5) protecting social homogeneity; and 6) promoting pacifism.”5 While Kupchan recognizes that these principles are often contradictory or just fundamentally flawed, his discussion of provides the reader with a greater understanding of the historical context and confronts the less-than-exceptional parts of America’s story. For example, in his analysis of the War of 1812, Kupchan highlights the patriotism in...