make the world safe for democracy.

enge to America's freedom of commerce and the seas and was seen asbesmirching US honor. America's involvement in this war proved costlyand ultimately unpopular and the final results largely confirmed the sta-tus quo. However, it does suggest the potency of moral principle in guid-ing early American action

s traditionally been difficult for Americans to under-stand how compromise is possible or necessary on some questions in globalpolitics." When to compromise, and on what principles, thus remains asource of debate

resulting in a slide in approval for the Biden administration'sforeign policy

but the manner of the withdrawal,the loss of lives during the drawdown, and the resurgence of Taliban con-trol produced a great deal of criticism

. As these warsdragged on into the latter part of the decade and beyond, and quick successwas not in sight, support fell

As a result, the outcomes — prolonged stalemate in thefirst, defeat in the second — were unsatisfactory.

inception of nation-states

fidelity to those principles has not always been sustained in action;yet the very concern for moral principle is nonetheless an important char-acteristic of US foreign policy, especially when compared to other nations'traditions at the beginning of the American Republic.

w. When fundingfor the Contras was stopped by Congress from late 1984 to late 1986,administration officials devised a scheme to continue supporting it bysecretly selling arms to Iran and transferring part of the profits fromthose sales to the Nicaraguan rebels. This operation became known asthe Iran—Contra affair

. In 1962, the Monroe Doctrine again justifiedthe American blockade against Cuba after the discovery of Soviet mis-siles there. In his address to the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis,President John F. Kennedy declared that these missiles violated "thetraditions of this nation and the Hemisphere

its attempt to outlaw international war

Bythese actions, and in this interpretation, American global involvement andAmerican imperialism were proceeding apace

In all, then, "there was, undeniably an American imperialismat the end of the nineteenth century."

in

fos-ter national unity.

In this sense, foreign policy was crucial to America'sevolution, and the United States was hardly divorced from world politicsat its beginning.

Venezuela's claim against the British over aboundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana

it did allow US involvement in thepolitical affairs of Latin America to continue.

[the] United States would not permit such a deal, even with the consentof the inhabitants.

ritain nor the United Stateswould "obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control" over a canalacross the isthmus at Panama

which wasultimately allowed to lapse in 1800

By asserting that the "rights and interests" of the United States would beaffected by European involvement in the Western Hemisphere, his doctrinemade clear that the United States did, indeed, have political interests beyondits borders.

in the Byzantine politics of Europe wouldnot be in America's best interest

because the United States was youngand weak, with a small army and a relatively large land mass

isolationism in decisions regardinginvolvement abroad

Instead, most saw foreign policy as subordinate to domestic interests andvalues

evolutionary France does not fit this descrip-tion, but "class bound and restrictive" certainly describes politics under theConcert of Europe, the power arrangement dominated by the conservativeregimes of Prussia, Russia, and Austria after the defeat of Napoleon.)

The constructivist tradition in the study of international politics,as well, invites an emphasis on ideas, values, and culture as core conceptsin an understanding of the behavior of states

different" (or "exceptional") fromthe nations of the Old World?

identify the "basic attitudes, beliefs, values, and value orienta-tions" of a society as a beginning point for analysis, its use is appropri-ate, because individuals (and hence, nations) make decisions within thecontext of a particular set of values and beliefs.1

pluralist society

rational actor model

constructivist

is the study ofinfluence and the influential.... The influentials are those who get themost of what there is to get."1