Table Of ContentConservative Internationalism
Also by Henry R. Nau
Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions and
Ideas, 4th edition, CQ Press
Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates
in China, India, Iran, Japan and Russia,
Oxford University Press, co-editor and contributor
At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy,
Cornell University Press
Trade and Security: U.S. Policies at Cross-Purposes,
American Enterprise Institute
The Myth of America’s Decline: Leading the World Economy
into the 1990s, Oxford University Press
Domestic Trade Politics and the Uruguay Round,
Columbia University Press, editor and contributor
Technology Transfer and U.S. Foreign Policy, Praeger
National Politics and International Technology:
Nuclear Reactor Development in Western Europe,
Johns Hopkins University Press
Conservative Internationalism
Armed Diplomacy
Under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan
Henry r. nau
P r i n c e t o n U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 978- 0- 691- 15931- 7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nau, Henry R., 1941–
Conservative internationalism :
armed diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan / Henry R. Nau.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: “Debates about U.S. foreign policy have revolved around three main
traditions—liberal internationalism, realism, and nationalism. In this book, distinguished
political scientist Henry Nau delves deeply into a fourth, overlooked foreign policy
tradition that he calls “conservative internationalism.” This approach spreads freedom,
like liberal internationalism; arms diplomacy, like realism; and preserves national
sovereignty, like nationalism. It targets a world of limited government or independent
“sister republics,” not a world of great power concerts or centralized international
institutions. Nau explores conservative internationalism in the foreign policies of
Thomas Jefferson, James Polk, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan. These presidents
did more than any others to expand the arc of freedom using a deft combination of
force, diplomacy, and compromise. Since Reagan, presidents have swung back and
forth among the main traditions, overreaching under Bush and now retrenching under
Obama. Nau demonstrates that conservative internationalism offers an alternative way.
It pursues freedom but not everywhere, prioritizing situations that border on existing free
countries—Turkey, for example, rather than Iraq. It uses lesser force early to influence
negotiations rather than greater force later after negotiations fail. And it reaches timely
compromises to cash in military leverage and sustain public support. A groundbreaking
revival of a neglected foreign policy tradition, Conservative Internationalism shows how
the United States can effectively sustain global leadership while respecting the constraints
of public will and material resources”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-691-15931-7 (hardback)
1. United States—Foreign relations—Philosophy. 2. United States—Foreign
relations—1801–1809. 3. United States—Foreign relations—1845–1849. 4. United
States—Foreign relations—1945–1953. 5. United States—Foreign relations—1981–1989.
6. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826. 7. Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795–1849.
8. Truman, Harry S., 1884–1972. 9. Reagan, Ronald. I. Title.
E183.7.N378 2013
327.73009’034—dc23
2013019882
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Publication of this book has been aided by
This book has been composed in Sabon and Kozuka Gothic
Printed on acid- free paper ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For my friends who became family and know who they are
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
IntroductIon
Traditions of the Eagle 1
chapter 1
What Is Conservative Internationalism? 11
chapter 2
America’s Foreign Policy Traditions 39
chapter 3
Recent Presidents: The Pendulum Swings 61
chapter 4
Thomas Jefferson: Empire of Liberty 81
chapter 5
James K. Polk: Manifest Destiny 110
chapter 6
Harry S. Truman: Liberty in Western Europe 147
chapter 7
Ronald Reagan: Liberty in Eastern Europe 171
conclusIon
Freedom and Force 201
Notes 247
Index 303
Acknowledgments
Writing a book is much like running a marathon, with one difference:
the finish line never arrives. You just stop writing before the book is ever
completed. This book is no exception. I began running with it some fifty
years ago, long before any of my other books. I arrived in Washington
as a graduate student and discovered quickly that the world around me
at that time was almost completely liberal. I attended seminars at the
Brookings Institution and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
and heard little that resonated with my predispositions toward liberty,
small government, low taxes, religious faith, and competitive markets. It
was never a kind of in- your- face liberalism; it was always more subtle— a
matter of topics chosen and conclusions reached, not ideology. For ex-
ample, no one studied government failure only market failure, and no
one concluded that stronger families and churches, personal responsibil-
ity and savings were the solution to social problems; they simply advo-
cated new government welfare programs. And in my field of American
foreign policy, everyone talked about liberal internationalism but never
mentioned conservative internationalism or even imagined such a thing
could exist.
I accepted my environment and have loved every minute of my aca-
demic marathon ever since. Indeed I adore the contemplative profession.
It fits my temperament “to a T.” My colleagues, most of whom are lib-
eral, have treated me splendidly, even if at times they are bewildered by
my political predilections. Early on Joe Nye, Bob Keohane, and Ernie
Haas drew me into their intellectual projects and supported my work
on energy, technology transfer, food, and U.S. foreign economic policy.
I passed Joe on my way out of the State Department as I left the Ford
administration and he entered the Carter administration. There were al-
ways more academic colleagues in Democratic than Republican adminis-
trations. I don’t think there was another one (with the exception perhaps
of Jeane Kirkpatrick) in the Reagan administration. Bob, who invited me
to teach at Stanford after I left government the first time, stayed in touch
with me during my White House years, perplexed to be sure by what I
was doing there but always supportive of my academic research on a
more conservative (or domesticist, as I called it then) approach to inter-
national economic policy. Ernie Haas also reached out to me, a gentle
and powerful intellect with whom I had practically nothing in common
politically.
Description:Debates about U.S. foreign policy have revolved around three main traditions--liberal internationalism, realism, and nationalism. In this book, distinguished political scientist Henry Nau delves deeply into a fourth, overlooked foreign policy tradition that he calls "conservative internationalism."
