Morality and American Foreign Policy

Abstract

This monograph attempts to demonstrate that moral norms can, and do, significantly affect international affairs by their influence on individual decision-makers, domestic public opinion and national reputation abroad. It investigates four cases of American foreign policy-making in the 20th century: US food aid to the Soviet Union during the Russian famine of 1921, President Nixon's decision to alter US policies on biochemical weapons production in 1969, the signing of the Panama Canal Treaties in 1978, and the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Three of these cases illustrate the influence of ethics in foreign policy: questions of conscience led US decision-makers to provide food aid to the Soviets despite its potentially stabilizing effect on a regime they despised; domestic support for the international moral norm against chemical warfare persuaded Nixon to endorse a radical revision of US biochemical policies, and the existence of a moral ban on territorial colonialism enabled the Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos to rally international opposition to continued US occcupation of the Panama Canal Zone. The limits of international norms are demonstrated in the case of Dresden, where the US Air Force felt compelled to violate the moral norm of non-combatant immunity.