American Isolationism Research Articles

Kenneth D. Rose (2021). American Isolationism Between the World Wars. The Search for a Nation’s Identity. New York–London: Routledge, ss. 364

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A “Savior of Isolation”: The Interrelationship between American Isolationism and the Idea of “Manifest Destiny” and Its Embodiment in Pre-World War I Diplomacy

Isolationist ideology made the United States at the beginning of its development more of an island encircled by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans than a New World. However, after the formation of the American nation, “Manifest Destiny” became deeply embedded in the national beliefs based on Protestant culture over time. The former laid the foundation for the American position on internal and external affairs, while the latter determined the way Americans interacted with the outside world. At least until they took center stage on the world stage after World War I, isolation seemed to be the golden rule for Americans. Did “manifest destiny” put an end to isolationism, or did isolationism give rise to “divine destiny”? Or did the two complement each other and finally play a role in specific foreign policy decisions? These are the questions that accompany the history of the establishment and development of the United States and are worth exploring.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ АМЕРИКАНСЬКОГО ІЗОЛЯЦІОНІЗМУ 1930-Х – ПОЧАТКУ 1940-Х РР.

The article examines the characteristics of American isolationism as a foreign policy doctrine of the United States in the 30s – early 40s of the XX century, reveals the essence of the term «isolationism» – its origin and application. A brief retrospective on the doctrine of isolationism is given, which is necessary to understand the reasons and specifics of its application in the 30s of the XX century. The purpose of the article is to analyze the key milestones of isolationism in the 1930s, its advantages and disadvantages, and to highlight the contradictions between the officially proclaimed neutrality and the real foreign policy of the United States. The research methodology is based on the historical-systemic method, the principle of historicism, and the problem-chronological approach. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the attempt to analyze the peculiarities of isolationism as a foreign policy doctrine of the United States in the 30s and early 40s, examining the history of the formation of this doctrine, the reasons for its application in the period under study, the controversies surrounding its relevance and the results of its implementation. The application of such a comprehensive approach makes it possible to identify the key aspects and distinctive features of American foreign policy of this period and to determine the long-term impact of the doctrine of isolationism on both the international position of the United States and on further global affairs. Conclusions. The doctrine of isolationism, which was used in the foreign policy of the United States in the 30s and early 40s of the XX century, did not meet the foreign policy challenges faced by the country at that time, so it was ineffective and failed to prevent the United States from entering World War II.

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

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...

Austria Made in Hollywood by Jacqueline Vansant

Reviewed by: Austria Made in Hollywood by Jacqueline Vansant Laura A. Detre Jacqueline Vansant, Austria Made in Hollywood. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2019. 196 pp. For a country of its size, Austria receives a lot of attention from American filmmakers. Not only has Hollywood made many movies set in both Imperial Austria and the Republic of Austria, but filmmakers' interest in the country has remained somewhat steady throughout the history of the industry. Whether [End Page 115] writers and directors were interested in documenting Nazism, Austria's role in the Cold War, or simply the myths of grandeur and elegance surrounding the former imperial capital, Vienna, they have been using the country as a setting for American films since the early days of moviemaking and continue to find inspiration there. This is the focus of Jacqueline Vansant's book Austria Made in Hollywood. She shows how Hollywood's Austrian films began in 1923 with Erich Stroheim's film Merry-Go-Round and remain an important part of American filmmaking through the 1960s with movies such as The Cardinal and The Sound of Music. Vansant makes the argument that these films were often vehicles for working through American social issues, particularly around social class and ethnicity, as well as global political movements that transcended both the United States and Austria. Vansant's book is organized into five chapters, which are essentially chronological but also focus on discrete topics in the history of this filmmaking. Chapter 1 looks closely at Erich Stroheim and his films that were set in Austria. She notes that other scholars' focus on Stroheim's rocky relationships with studio heads gives short shrift to the significance of his nostalgia for pre–World War I Austria and the way he simultaneously challenged contemporary mores. The topic of Chapter 2 spans a broader period, looking at films that depict romantic relationships between Americans and Austrians between 1932 and 1960. In particular, Vansant writes about four Paramount-produced comedies, Evenings for Sale, Champagne Waltz, The Emperor Waltz, and A Breath of Scandal. All four of these films use their Austrian settings to discuss social issues such as poverty, racism and eugenics, women's sexual empowerment, and the positive contributions to be made by immigrants. They were also deeply impacted by world events, such as the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Chapter 3 looks at films set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and made just before or during the Second World War, many of which contrasted Austria with Nazi Germany and posited the benefits of multicultural societies. Unfortunately, Vansant also notes that the subtleties of these films may have been lost on American audiences. She writes that the reviewers for the New York Times dismissed these films without connecting them to contemporary issues, and we can presume that most audiences did the same. Sticking with the theme of a general public that was less than enthusiastic about filmic delves into contemporary issues, Chapter 4 looks specifically at three films, So Ends Our [End Page 116] Night, They Dare Not Love, and Once Upon a Honeymoon, all of which depict the Anschluss. These films came in the context of American isolationism and were presented to a public that had little interest in international affairs. They also presented the true story of the annexation of the independent state of Austria to its larger neighbor through the particular lenses of their respective filmmakers' biases. In her final chapter, Vansant examines the depiction of Austria in The Cardinal and The Sound of Music, both of which came approximately twenty years after the majority of the other films discussed in this text. Because of this chronological difference, these two films view the country in significantly different ways. As she says, "unlike the films discussed in the previous chapter, The Cardinal and The Sound of Music were neither a call to arms nor justification for US involvement in the war" (113). Both films used Austria's recent history as material to primarily entertain audiences. An argument could be made for The Cardinal as a cautionary tale about silence in the face of evil, but ultimately it was made to get viewers...

The New International Economic Order, Utopian Realism, and the Recovery of an Alternative Vision for Global Governance

Not so long ago, an alternative to American hegemony and progressive isolationism was elaborated by non-aligned segments of the international left. In the search for potentially usable models from the past, this paper will shed light on the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Promulgated as a United Nations resolution in 1974, and drafted by leaders in the Global South, the NIEO was one of the most widely discussed transnational governance reforms of the twentieth century. This paper will argue that the NIEO was an exercise in utopian realism that fundamentally depended on foregrounding the global security dilemma and defending the legitimacy and lasting utility nation-state. As a result of these commitments, the NIEO's proponents unwittingly self-limited their chances for long-term success on the international stage.

Italian foreign policy under the Gentiloni government: do the ‘three circles’ hold in 2017?

ABSTRACTItaly under the Gentiloni government faced significant foreign policy challenges in 2017 against the backdrop of a volatile geopolitical climate. The present chapter employs the ‘three circles’ approach to analyze Italy’s foreign policy, arguing that the three circles approach remains relevant in 2017. In the first Atlanticist foreign policy circle, Italy’s foreign policy influence appears at first blush to have weakened, owing to growing American isolationism and uncertainty surrounding support of NATO and multilateralism more broadly, though the Gentiloni government succeeded to some extent in bridge-building efforts with the United States. In the second European foreign policy circle, Italy’s influence was somewhat enhanced as it took positions of solidarity with its European partners on critical security, economic and environmental matters. In the third Mediterranean foreign policy circle, Italy sought to take on a more active role in addressing the Libyan conflict and the migrant crisis, but its role within this circle was to some degree overshadowed by France following the election of President Emmanuel Macron. On balance, however, Italy continued to focus on its traditional interests within its three foreign policy circles and to seek to leverage multilateral institutions to achieve foreign policy goals within an ever more turbulent global environment.

Private Aid, Political Activism: American Medical Relief to Spain and China, 1936–1949 by Aelwen D. Wetherby

Reviewed by: Private Aid, Political Activism: American Medical Relief to Spain and China, 1936–1949 by Aelwen D. Wetherby David Forsythe Aelwen D. Wetherby. Private Aid, Political Activism: American Medical Relief to Spain and China, 1936–1949. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2017. vii + 240 pp. Ill. $65.00 (978-0-8262-2107-0). This book chronicles in considerable detail how certain Americans mobilized to provide humanitarian assistance in the violent conflicts engulfing both Spain and China starting in the 1930s. Believing that their government and the affiliated American Red Cross were not being sufficiently active, these American citizens decided in favor of politicized assistance to particular fighting factions abroad. None of the three organizations studied here, one active in Spain and two in China, lasted beyond the targeted conflicts. Any broader influence from the three agencies remains slight. But the author believes they represent “an important story of the more complex internationalism of the U.S. in the 1930s and the development of new standards of aid in conflict” (p. 176). The author, Aelwen D. Wetherby, is associated with the Oak Ridge Institute, a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy, and is an occasional lecturer at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. This book stemmed from her doctoral dissertation at Oxford University. She focuses on the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy (AMBASD), the American Medical Bureau for Aid to China (ABMAC), and the China Aid Council (CAC). She lays great stress on the fact that each organization made little pretense of pursuing nonpoliticized assistance. Rather, commitment to a particular fighting party was evident. The chosen title of AMBASD made clear that its concerns were in support of the Spanish elected government rather than with the fascist rebels under the [End Page 221] leadership of Francisco Franco. She does not emphasize the point, however, that on the side of the democratic government one found various communist factions that had little commitment to democracy and spent much of their time fighting each other, and the social democrats, but not always the fascist opposition. On the other hand in the ABMAC one found Americans, some prominent, who committed to the Chinese nationalists under the corrupt and repressive Chiang Kai-shek and were bitterly opposed to the communists under Mao Zedong. By comparison, the CAC was most active in northwest China where its aid programs largely benefitted those under the control of precisely the Chinese communists. Not to put too fine a point on things, two of these organizations were left of center and one on the right. Wetherby makes much of the fact that the American Red Cross (ARC), chartered by Congress but linked to a global network, was supposedly governed by key Red Cross principles endorsing neutrality, impartiality, and independence. These plus the norm of humanity were supposed to exclude politics. She is on target when she writes that “the line between political conviction and humanitarian idealism has historically been difficult to define” (p. 7). She might have noted that in the 1920s when the American Henry Davison was urging the ARC to be active in Europe, and when he wanted a new League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to dominate that global humanitarian network, he and the ARC were anything but neutral. Coming from Wall Street, Davison was a strong anticommunist who saw European postwar disorder as benefitting the Bolsheviks in Moscow. The ARC was much interested in helping White Russian refugees fleeing Lenin and his comrades. That organization made clear it would do nothing to help build up medical facilities in the Soviet Union. Then as now, Red Cross neutral humanitarian assistance was, to a great extent, left to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, the founding Red Cross agency whose all-Swiss governing board increased prospects for—but did not guarantee—neutral humanitarian action in violent politics. Insofar as the three citizen groups studied in this book saw the ARC as too timid in Spain and China, that situation had more to do with American isolationism than with the purported neutrality of the ARC. There is no major study of the ARC and the ICRC in Geneva, but such a...

Veiled Intervention: Anti-Semitism, Allegory, and Captain America

Abstract Conventional wisdom states that leftover frustrations from World War I necessitated an incremental rhetorical strategy for interventionists in the buildup to World War II. However, such considerations often miss another factor that bolstered American isolationism: anti-Semitism. In the interwar period, America saw a sharp uptick in anti-Semitic organizations that preached a vehement isolationist message. Because of this environment, interventionist rhetors, particularly Jewish rhetors, were denied access to traditional rhetorical resources. In response, one group turned to one of the few outlets available: comic books. Through allegory, a rhetorical form that combines an entertaining surface narrative with a strong but hidden ideological argument, these rhetors were able to reach broad audiences with interventionist messages from behind the veil of comic book adventures. This essay examines the ways in which one of those comic book characters, Captain America, was purposefully constructed to be an allegorical argument for intervention. Through a careful interplay of visuals and narrative themes, his creators made a compelling case for America’s involvement in the war.

American Media Coverage of the Rise of Hitler: An Indicator of Depression-Era American Isolationism or of a False Assessment of the Rise of the Chancellor?

This study seeks to analyze the response of the US media to the rise of Hitler, a process which occurred during the Great Depression, in the 1930s. At a time when the attention of the country was focused on domestic economic problems, assessment of the rise of a leader who became such a prominent figure is an interesting topic worthy of analysis. While his rise could not be wholly ignored, one can imagine that it would probably have been spoken of more in a less tense domestic climate. Overall, this study shows that the rise of the Fuhrer was not described in as critical of a way as should be expected of a democratic nation, especially one that would go on to fight, in an extremely bloody and protracted manner, this man and all he represented.

Новые тенденции азиатско-тихоокеанского регионализма: изоляционизм США и (вынужденное?) лидерство Китая

Новые тенденции азиатско-тихоокеанского регионализма: изоляционизм США и (вынужденное?) лидерство Китая

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914–1958 by John Pollard

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914-1958. By John Pollard. [Oxford History of the Christian Church. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2014. Pp. xvi, 544. $140.00. ISBN 978-0-19-920856-2.]John Pollard is already well known for his work on the Vatican. Now he enhances that reputation with a sweeping narrative of the evolution of the papacy from World War I through the controversial role of Pope Pius XII in World War II to the cold war. It was a period of great change for the Vatican, as it recovered from the loss of temporal power in 1870 and began carving out a new-and more powerful-role in international diplomacy.World War I represented the nadir of Vatican influence. In 1915 the Allies signed the treaty of London that excluded the Holy See from taking part in any peace negotiations because of the Italian fear that it might bring up the Roman Question, the situation of the Holy See between the Italian occupation of Rome in 1870 and the Lateran Treaties in 1929. In the nineteenth century, the Holy See had to contend with the aftermath of the French Revolution. In the twentieth century, it faced new enemies: fascism, with which it had to preserve some semblance of accord in Italy; Nazism; and communism. After the Great War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a sometime ally to the Holy See, was dismembered, and a new world power took its first steps in European affairs. Despite the hostility of the American President Woodrow Wilson toward Catholics and hyphenated Americans, he did, under pressure, visit Pope Benedict XV on his way to Versailles, but then his own government's veto of U.S. membership in the League of Nations meant a return to American isolationism. But the seeds were sown, and the Holy See began slowly to appreciate the particular type of republican government practiced by the religiously pluralistic country across the Atlantic. This is one of several important themes that Pollard traces in his monumental contribution to the subject.Relying heavily on the Vatican Archives, open to February 1939, and on a vast array of secondary works, Pollard traces the adaptation of the Vatican to the new realities of the twentieth century. He sees more continuity than discontinuity from Benedict XV through Pius XI to Pius XII. Although he vividly portrays these pontiffs, he does not neglect the important roles of subordinates such as Domenico Tardini, who served in the Vatican until the 1960s, and Giovanni Battista Montini, the later Pope Paul VI.Contrary to the charge that Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican secretary of state from 1929 to his election as Pius XII in 1939, agreed to the dissolution of the German Center party as a pay-off to Hitler for the 1933 concordat with the Third Reich, Pollard shows that the Vatican Archives make it clear that the disbanding of the party left Pacelli less room for manoeuvre in his negotiations with the Nazis (p. …

Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age, by Christopher McKnight Nichols

Christopher McKnight Nichols Promise and Peril: America at Dawn of Global Age Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press;, 201 I ; 464 pp., ISBN: 978-0-674-04984-0, $37.00 (cloth).Christopher McKnight Nichols opens his study of American isolationism by quoting George W. Bush's warning, in his 2006 State of Union address, that the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting-yet it ends in danger and decline (1). The bipartisan proclivity for employing solely as an epithet, Nichols writes, along with its binary opposition to internation- alism, misconstrues rich complexity of origins of isolationism'' (1). Nichols seeks to reinterpret and rehabilitate isolationist thinkers of period from roughly 1898 to 1940, whose ideas he frames as response to turn-of-the-century imperialism and Spanish-American War. This modern isolationism was a constellation of ideas rather than single principle or policy position (352) and compatible with widely divergent approaches to foreign relations. Nichols is intent on proving that isolationism did not entail cultural, economic, or complete political separation from rest of although such separation from world is first reaction that comes to mind. Isolationism was also rooted in conceptions of American domestic arrangements and frequently turned, in fact and in debate, on inner life of nation (352).This is nowhere near as daring and pathbreaking as it sounds. Not for decades has any serious student of American diplomacy believed that isolationism entailed construction of impermeable barriers between America and rest of world. And there is already rich literature (indeed, Nichols cites it extensively) that demonstrates how deeply rooted isolationist precepts were in conceptions of good life at home. For example, Wayne S. Cole's many works on interwar isolationists amply illustrate centrality of their Midwestern and agrarian roots to their suspicion of entanglements abroad. Yet if these elements of Nichols' larger argument are all too familiar, its parts are often greater than whole. The ana- lyses of individual figures are discerning, well judged, and show commendable grasp of varied archival materials and relevant scholarly literature, even if Nichols' prose is often sloppy and copy-editing is abysmal.Nichols gets off to shaky start by choosing as one of his exemplary figures Republican senator Henry Cabot Lodge, vehement imperialist and navalist. Lodge was prominent supporter of Large Policy against which Nichols sees most of his other illustrative figures reacting, and his one isolationist trait was an absolutist conception of national sovereignty. In his case, this ruled out participation in League of Nations as an intolerable abridgement of Congress's prerogative to decide if and where American troops were deployed and led him, as chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to play crucial role in preventing American ratification of Treaty of Versailles. If Lodge can be shoehorned into isolationist camp, questions arise of just who could plausibly be excluded and whether what Nichols surveys is in fact coherent tradition or world view at all.Fortunately, most of other individuals to whom Nichols devotes chapters fit isolationist mould more consistently and amount to something better resem- bling unified school of thought. Their principal shared preoccupation is with fate of individual liberty in wake of giant industrial and military organizations ushered in by new century. Nichols turns first to philosopher William James, previously apolitical but stalwart of Anti-Imperialist League after American troops were committed to occupying Philippines. Aptly enough for founder of Pragmatism, James judged America's dalliance with empire by its consequences, and feared that however elevated motives and rhetoric of empire, reality would be brutality abroad and conformity at home. …

American Isolationism and The Political Evolution of Journalist-Turned-US Senator Gerald P. Nye

This article outlines the rise of the radical agrarian Nonpartisan League (NPL) press in North Dakota, focusing on NPL editor Gerald P. Nye, who took his Prairie-based populist platform and constituents' post-World War I anti-British sentiments to Washington, DC. There he effectively opposed active US participation in European and Asian wars as a US senator from 1925 to 1941. The article explores the intersection of journalism and politics through the development of Nye's isolationist ideology as a rural newspaper editor and his rise as a powerful political ideologue and advocate in the Senate.

Woody Guthrie, American Radical

Woody Guthrie, American Radical

A Complicated Kindness: The Iowa Famine Relief Movement and the Myth of Midwestern (and American) Isolationism

In December 1892, America's ambassador to St. Petersburg wrote to an Iowa newsman regarding Russia's ongoing famine. Claiming peasant diets consisted of bread made from “rye and straw, rye and bark...

The Myth of American Isolationism

International relations scholarship often describes America's foreign policy tradition as having isolationist tendencies or an isolationist dimension, a characterization derived most directly from American security policy in the 1920s and 1930s. This article offers a critique of this characterization. American diplomacy in the 1920s was subtle but ambitious and effective. American policy in the years leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor was in fact quite responsive to events on the European continent. In short, American isolationism is a myth.

FDR as founding father of the transatlantic alliance: The ‘Roosevelt doctrine’ of January 1936

While few historians would doubt Franklin D. Roosevelt's claim to be one of the founding fathers of the transatlantic alliance during the Second World War, there is much less agreement about his transatlantic credentials during the period of American isolationism in the 1930s. This article takes the view that FDR's transatlantic leadership can, in fact, be dated back to his first term as president, and argues that his actions during the Ethiopian crisis of 1935–1936 provide strong evidence of his early support for Britain and France in combating the expansionism of Germany, Italy, and Japan. In particular, his ‘state of the union’ message in January 1936 made clear his ideological commitment to cooperation with the European democracies and constituted a ‘Roosevelt doctrine’ that presaged his later wartime leadership of the Atlantic alliance.

Comparative Literature versus World Literature

Recent theories and pedagogies of alterity such as multiculturalism and postcolonialism have had a significant impact the discipline of Comparative Literature and the teaching of World Literature. They have, in many institutions, taken over the activity of comparative analyses between cultures and literatures and have achieved this importance in venues that preempt the traditional role of Comparative Literature. Goethe's call to form a Weltliteratur and enrich one's own culture through the acknowledgment of other models of artistic expression, such as Sanskrit kavya, may seem anachronistic and naive to us today. However, we should not forget that the discipline of Comparative Literature was formed from just such a cosmopolitan desire to embrace diversity. Comparative Literature began by seeking to engage the known world, albeit with very insufficient tools. Over time, it became institutionally far less global in its perspective. However, even in its most Eurocentric and isolationist moments, it is preferable to the cynicism that often motivates the market-based consumerism that has come to define present-day academic encounters with the Other. In American institutions today, it seems that we engage the world less out of curiosity than because of marketing concerns. Marketing in this context is twofold. First, there is marketing to and through university administrators who buy into the idea that alterity initiatives are the most advanced and logical approach to the miasma of competing cultures and ethnicities. In such cases, engaging the other easily degenerates into the diversity of college catalogues and state- or corporate-managed United Colors of Benetton pluralism (Shohat and Stam 6). Through such initiatives, institutions can recruit and pretend to restructure with supposedly radical responses to new socio-economic realities. One such recent restructuring can be seen in the development of new programs in World Literature. I wonder if the recent rediscovery of World Literature, a field often housed in Comparative Literature departments, and its establishment as free-standing programs of study might not be conceptualized as the latest avatar of the theories and pedagogies purporting to engage alterity that have sprung up campuses in the last three decades. If the recent revival of World Literature is a reflection of identity studies as currently configured in American academe, what, if any, common features does it share with other recent attempts to engage the Other? What effect do pedagogies of alterity have our field and how do we train students to engage the world? The practical reason for this packaging of alterity, whether it be a newly-minted World Literature departments, Multicultural or Postcolonial Studies programs, is obvious: all these specializations are relatively easy. They do not involve in-depth knowledge of another culture or demand learning foreign languages. In such pedagogies, each text preserves its own heritage as long as it speaks English (Prashad 112). Such pedagogies also feed American isolationism. In the Internet age, when the globalization of English has contributed to diminishing the need to learn languages, the Other can in these formats be consumed on the cheap. Furthermore, such celebrations of otherness and diversity in no way compromise American tendencies to cultural provincialism, triumphalism, or indifference to the world. Like those popular ethnic fairs one finds in the States, World Literature, like Multicultural and Postcolonial Studies, allows students to taste other cultures without digesting them. The resounding global education that such pedagogies offer a literature student can consist of nothing more than snippets from endless recycled representative authors writing or translated into the English language. Moreover, within such pedagogical initiatives, there is a real incentive not to respect the intellectual history or genealogy of an area of study. …

Security or Freedom First?

The commentator, head of an international moderate Muslim network, criticizes the “security first” concept as an expression of revived American isolationism based on miscomprehension of the Islamic world and the aims of lawful Islamists, ignorance of the conflicts within Islam, and lack of clarity on democracy.