Question

What was isolationism in the interwar United States? What were its origins? How does it reflect a different U.S. from today?

Answer 1

The United States Interwar era can be defined as a period of isolationism in between two periods of interventionism. After World War I, a majority of the nation had nothing more to do with foreign affairs, although in some countries they held a large part of the control. There was, however, continuous, ongoing debate in the United States about foreign policy, and there were those who supported the intervention. It wasn't until World War II was on the horizon, that foreign policy swinged once again in favor of intervention.

In America the isolationist feelings date back to the colonial period. The last thing many American colonists wanted was any ongoing engagement with the European governments that denied them religious and economic freedom and kept them engulfed in war. Nevertheless, they took comfort from the fact that the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean now practically "isolated" them from Europe.

While it has been practiced in U.S. foreign policy to some extent since before the War for Independence, isolationism in the U.S. has never been about a complete rejection of the rest of the world. Only a handful of US isolationists supported the nation's complete removal from the world stage. Alternatively, most American isolationists have sought to prevent the nation's participation in what Thomas Jefferson called "entangling alliances." Rather, U.S. isolationists have maintained that America could and should use its immense power and economic strength to promote the ideals of freedom and democracy in other nations through negotiation rather than fighting.

While the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks initially spawned a spirit of nationalism unseen in America since the Second World War, the ensuing War on Terror may have led to the return of American isolationism. Wars have claimed thousands of American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. At home, many economists were frightened by a slow and fragile recovery from a Great Recession compared to the 1929 Great Depression. America, suffering from war abroad and a failed economy at home, found itself in a situation very similar to that of the late 1940s, when isolationist sentiments prevailed.