“Who Are We?” Woodrow Wilson, the First World War and the Reshaping of America's National Identity

Abstract

在美国崛起为世界大国的新形势下，威尔逊借助美国卷入大战和实施战争动员这一难得的时机，通过重新阐释美国的传统与特性以及利用德国作为“他者”与美国相对照，成功地使美国的自我形象与国际角色从19世纪的“共和榜样”和“自由典范”转换为“自由卫士”和“世界领袖”。威尔逊对国家身份的重塑不仅有助于当时的战争动员，而且解决了美国踏上世界舞台后的角色困惑与身份危机，为崛起的美国确立了长远的国家政策走向。他对美国理想、角色和命运的创造性阐释主导了美国人对自己国家存在意义以及美国与世界关系的理解，成为20世纪美国最有影响力的外交政策话语，对美国外交产生深远的影响。 关键词: 伍德罗·威尔逊国家身份国际角色自由卫士美国外交 In the new context of the rise of United States as a world power, Woodrow Wilson seized the exceptional opportunity offered by American involvement in the First World War and wartime mobilization to reinterpret America's traditions and characteristics, contrasting the US with Germany, the “other.” He successfully transformed America's self‐image and international role from the “model republic” and “example of freedom” of the nineteenth century to “champion of liberty” and “world leader.” Wilson's reshaping of the national identity not only facilitated wartime mobilization but also resolved America's identity crisis and its confusion about the role it was to play after it came on the world stage. In so doing, he identified the long‐term direction of national policy for an America that had risen to be a world power. His creative interpretation of America's ideals, role and destiny guided his countrymen in their understanding of the meaning of their country's existence and its relations with the world and became the most influential foreign policy discourse of twentieth century America. This had a far‐reaching influence on American foreign policy.