Continuity in American Foreign Policy: Part Two: Its the Economy, Stupid
Charles W. King
The second major continuity of American foreign policy is its focus on trade, and the specific terms under which it prefers to trade. Not only is the United States a 'Free Trade' evangelist today, it has always been one. This consistency illuminates how the United States has historically approached diplomacy. Understanding that can help policy-makers through a more complete understanding of the history of American foreign policy and how the American perspective and method in foreign affairs and international trade differs from other countries'.
A number of the Intolerable Acts passed by the British government that prompted American rebellion were indented to reinforce mercantilist policies and crack down on smuggling. Smuggling was rife in the American colonial era, as trade with foreign powers and the colonial possessions was illegal under British colonial policy. Along with the imposition of monopolies on specific goods in the colonies, these policies combined to restrict trade significantly and inflate prices. American consumers suffered and the coffers of companies like the British East India Company filled. When the Revolution broke out in 1776 it was in part a response to the British crack down on foreign goods and trade in foreign markets. Americans have been committed to free trade from their founding onward.
The Monroe Doctrine and the Open Door Policy are continuations of this commitment to these free trade principles. The Monroe Doctrine was not only a prohibition against European intervention in events in the Americas, it also insisted upon open access to colonial possessions in the Americas for trade, and freedom of navigation on the seas. Monroe declared that the United States was going to trade with Latin and South America, whether Europe liked it or not.
In 1899 American Secretary of State John Hay sent diplomatic notes to the great powers, asking them to commit to Chinese territorial integrity after the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. Known as the 'Open Door Notes' they formally established the mode under which the United States would operate for the next hundred plus years, and enumerated the principles it had operated under since the American Revolution.
The United States has always insisted upon free trade, and done so using language that couches it as fair, moral, and just, giving people the ability to exercise their god given rights. It must be recognized that the United States has promoted these policies because they benefit the US and its citizens. Breaking free from British mercantilism and monopolies allowed American merchants to sell their goods for more in foreign markets and lowered prices for imports to the United States. The Monroe Doctrine relied upon the fact that the British Royal Navy already enforced freedom of navigation. The Open Door Notes attempted to level the playing field in China for the United States without the commitment of troops, but it was not rebuke of European intervention in China or an insistence of Chinese sovereignty.
The United States has been a trading nation since its founding. As a trading nation is benefits from access to foreign markets and good, and freedom of navigation. The nations the United States trades with do not necessarily receive the same benefits. While there are excellent moral arguments for free trade, to imagine the United States is pursuing its own prosperity is foolhardy. It is the responsibility of the government to protect the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of the American people. Since its founding that has been understood to include its economic prosperity through free trade. It is essential that American policy-makers recognize that foreign governments will, and should, resist throwing their country's doors wide open when they believe it will harm their people and their well-being. Doing so will facilitate better diplomatic and economic arrangements that benefit both the US and its trading partners and retain the moral high ground sought by liberal democracies.
Further Reading
Emily S. Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion 1890-1945, (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1982).
William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2009).