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The
seal of the United States of America features three words that can be read
on every
one dollar bill: Novus
Ordo Seclorum - a New World Order.
One hundred
years ago the USA set about to create just that. One hundred years ago
this
nation entered a war
- and ever since has shaped the face of the earth. One hundred years
later the greatest
part of the world’s nearly 6 billion people "to a remarkable degree ...
look
like Americans, dress
like Americans and think like Americans".[1]
But this
anniversary will be a quiet one. Don’t expect exuberant parties, colorful
fireworks,
solemn speeches or
anything else that would fit centennial celebrations. Yet, as the results
of
this special century
are evident around the globe - McDonald’s in Beijing, U.S. military bases
in South Korea, U.S.
managed peace talks in the Middle East, the U.S.-conceived World Bank
funneling money into
Latin America and South East Asia, ‘partnership for peace’ in Europe
and the UN-headquarters
in New York - it is important for the understanding of the current
situation to examine
the way we got to where we are.
That exactly
is the purpose of this essay. To present the thoughts and actions that
paved the
United States’ way
to becoming a world power, one - and finally the only - of those nations
"which are directly
interested in all parts of the world and whose voices must ... be listened
to
everywhere".[2]
Special interest will be given to inquiring into the role of the two extremes
in
determining U.S. foreign
policy: ‘isolationism’ and ‘interventionism’. Literally, ‘isolationism’
would mean shutting
itself off from the world around oneself, but - as historian Walter LaFeber
marks out - this expression
"means in U.S. history not withdrawal from world affairs (a people
does not ... become
the world’s greatest power by withdrawal ...), but maintaining a maximum
of freedom of action".[3]
Its antagonist ‘interventionism’ was often (and not always justly) defied
as mere ‘imperialism’.
But the cases of U.S. interventions go further than that: they were often
well intended and aimed
at making the world a safer and freer place to live in.
With its
turning one-hundred, The
American Century
would decease - were it to stick to
the meaning of its
name. This symbolic year provides thus an ideal opportunity to ponder about
the future fate of
America’s position among the nations of the world and assess the different
possibilities for a
successful U.S. foreign policy and the path it is most likely to take.
This gene-
ration of Americans
have the chance to create a new American
Century
or not.
In the
last years of the last decade of the last century - one-hundred years ago
- the United States
"was at the threshold
of a new chapter in its history, the character of which was in the hands
of the American people and their leaders".[4]
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