Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World

In Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, Walter Russell Mead gives his account of the history of U.S. foreign policy. Mead divides American foreign policy views into four schools, which he labels using an historic political figure who espoused those views. Those four schools are Hamiltonian, Wilsonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian.

The Hamiltonian school focuses on American commercial interests. Hamiltonians believe that expanding American commerce should be the primary focus of U.S. foreign policy; this necessarily entails the development of a strong navy that can be used to protect American commercial interests on the seas and in foreign lands. Hamiltonians would avoid entangling foreign alliances show more for the main reason that it tends to reduce the opportunities for commercial engagement with opposing camps. But they would not shy away from fighting to protect America's primary commercial partners.

The Wilsonian school focuses on the expansion of liberal democratic institutions around the world under the theory that democracy has a pacifying effect on people, and, therefore, democracies do not fight each other. Wilsonians can be either doves or hawks, but engagement with the world is a positive good for this camp. Although, they too would avoid foreign alliances.

The Jeffersonian school focuses on the internal development and perfection of the American republic. Jeffersonians tend to be strongly anti-militarist to the point of advocating for the existence of a very small national army. Jeffersonians are, however, okay with a powerful navy. Jeffersonians are the most isolationist of the four schools; they believe that the American republic is a fragile experiment that must be protected from the corrupting influences of foreign countries. This is, by far, the least prominent school in modern America.

The Jacksonian school also focuses on the internal development and perfection of the American republic. Contrary to the Jeffersonians, though, Jacksonians believe that the United States cannot seal itself off from the corrupting influences of the world and must actively protect itself on the world stage. Jacksonians believe that the U.S. must maintain a strong military for defensive purposes, and that such defense will sometimes entail the projection of American military power to distant countries. Jacksonians typically do not like foreign alliances, but will gladly enter them if they believe that a threat to another country merely portends a threat to the United States.

As you would imagine, these descriptions given by Mead are merely simplifications of the complex foreign policy views that most American leaders and citizens have held over the years. They are, however, a good foundation upon which Mead builds his real work. Mead claims that these American foreign policy schools have had a major impact on world politics. While this is true, other than the Wilsonian school, none of these schools was really created by the United States. The real reason why American foreign policy thought has had such a major impact on world politics is not because of its intellectual draw, but because of the prevalence of American economic and military power. Again, with the exception of Wilsonianism, none of these schools is original to American foreign policy. It was American power that caused their impact on the world, not American originality in developing them. show less