Support for Western Values

Principle 2:

Support for Western Values

The foreign policy of nations usually reflects some degree of national ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is belief in the superiority and correctness of one's own nation and the superiority and correctness of the nation's domestic and international policies. For example, the Imperial Chinese consider all peoples other than their own people to be barbarians. The Republican and Imperial Romans consider all non-Roman and non-allied peoples to be uncivilized. The Christian nations of medieval Europe consider non-Christian peoples to be heathens and Godless, God-forsaken peoples. The Nineteenth-century European colonial nations consider non-Western people to be morally, intellectually, and economically inferioreven child-like. All these great world powers deal with foreign nations and foreign people from a position of assumed superiority. The United States is also guilty of this behavior.

Throughout the history of the United States, Americans express a broad consensus of support for liberal, democratic, individualistic, and egalitarian values, dubbed "the American Creed" by social scientist Gunnar Myrdal. American foreign policy assumes that the form of pluralist, capitalist, individualistic, egalitarian, republican government practiced in the United States is inherently superior to other forms of government; it may even be a God-given form of government.

"For most Americans...foreign-policy goals should reflect not only the security interests of the nation and the economic interests of key groups within the nation but also the political values and principles that define American identity.... Hence the recurring tendencies in American history, either to retreat to minimum relations with the rest of the world... or... to set forth on a crusade to purify the world, to bring it into accordance with American principles...." (Huntington, in Ikenberry, 240)

Throughout American history, Americans export American beliefs, values and behaviors in an effort to bring the blessings of American-style government and Western civilization to the rest of the people of the world. First, Americans export American values, norms, expectations and behaviors to the Native American tribes, to the occupants of Spanish controlled territories, and to the Mormons settling the Intermountain West. Later, America tries to recast the entire world in the American image.

The 1876 Republican Party platform summarizes the government's intentions to "westernize" all territory under its control. The platform proclaims the party's intention to "secure... the supremacy of American institutions in all the territories." The institution specifically mentioned as needing to be secure is monogamous marriage; "it is the right and the duty of congress to prohibit and extirpate in the territories that relic of barbarism, polygamy." In the 1880 platform, Republicans equate polygamy to "its twin barbarity," slavery, and vow it must "die in the territories."

The Democrats are not always sure western values can be extended successfully into all territories. When successful transfer is unlikely, Democrats urge American withdrawal from the territory. This appears to be the case in the Philippines. In their 1900 and 1904 party platforms, Democrats describe the Filipino people in unflattering terms.

"We are not opposed to territorial expansion when it takes in desirable territory which can be erected into States in the Union, and whose people are willing and fit to become American citizens.... But we are unalterably opposed to seizing distant islands to be governed outside the Constitution, and whose people can never become citizens."

The Filipinos cannot become citizens without endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjects without imperiling our form of government; and as we are not willing to surrender our civilization nor to convert the Republic into an empire, we favor (giving) the Filipinos, first a stable form of government; second, independence; and third, protection from outside interference." (1900 Democratic Party Platform)

"We believe, with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, that no Government has a right to make one set of laws for those 'at home' and another and a different set of laws, absolute in their character, for those 'in the colonies.' All men under the American flag are entitled to the protection of the institutions whose emblem the flag is; if they are inherently unfit for those institutions, then they are inherently unfit to be members of the American body politic, Wherever there may exist a people incapable of being governed under American laws, in consonance with the American Constitution, the territory of that people ought not to be part of the American domain. We insist that we ought to... set the Filipino people upon their feet, free and independent, to work out their own destiny." (1904 Democratic Party Platform)

While the United States government does not often actively intervene to support liberal and republican revolutions in nations around the world, American politicians and American political parties often provide moral support to these movements. The platforms of the major political parties contain abundant references to support for western values around the world. The Democratic Party platform of 1848 supports the French liberal revolution of 1848 and likens the French revolution to America's own revolution of 1776. The Whig platform of 1852 also expresses support for the liberal movements throughout Europe, but emphasizes that the value of non-entanglement takes priority.

"That while struggling freedom everywhere enlists the warmest sympathy of the Whig party, we still adhere to the doctrines of the Father of his Country,... of keeping ourselves free of all entangling alliances with foreign countries, and of never quitting our own to stand upon foreign ground, that our mission as a republic is not to propagate our opinions, or impose on other countries our form of government by artifice or force; but to teach, by example, and to show by our success, moderation and justice, the blessings of self-government and the advantages of free institutions." (1852 Whig Party Platform)

In the last half of the Nineteenth Century, political party platforms contain numerous references of support for western liberal values. The 1868 Republican platform declares "This Convention declares its sympathy with all the oppressed people which are struggling for their rights." In their 1892 party platform, the Democrats "condemn the oppression practiced by the Russian Government upon its Lutheran and Jewish subjects" and express sympathy with the revolutionaries in Ireland seeking independence for their nation from Great Britain. In 1892, the Republicans also "protest against the persecution of Jews in Russia" and sympathize with the cause of home-rule in Ireland. In the 1896 platforms, Republicans condemn "the massacres in Armenia" by the Turks and Democrats express "sympathy to the people of Cuba in their historic struggle for liberty and independence." Of course, the United States intervenes in Cuba in support of the Cubans' liberty and independence, but remains non-interventionist toward the other global trouble spots. In 1900, the Republicans claim their effort to mediate the conflict between Great Britain and the South African Republic is merely an effort to obtain a peaceful settlement of a dispute and is non-interventionist in the finest American tradition. Both the Republican and Democrat platforms support the South Africans. In their platform, the Democrats "view with indignation the purpose of England to overwhelm with force the South African Republics.... We extend our sympathies to the heroic burghers in their unequal struggle to maintain their liberty and independence."

Following World War I, both Democrats and Republicans give moral support to the independence movements throughout Europe. The Democrat platform of 1920 expresses support for Irish "national self-determination" support for efforts by the Armenians "to establish and maintain a government of their own," and "active sympathy with the people of China, Czecho-Slovakia, Finland, Poland, Persia, Jugo-Slavia and others who have recently established representative governments and who are striving to develop the institutions of Democracy." The Democrats, under President Woodrow Wilson, seek a popular and congressional mandate for active intervention in Armenia. Republicans "sympathize" with the Armenians but oppose intervention, using their 1920 party platform to describe Wilson's efforts at intervention as disregard of the lives of American boys or of American interest."

In the early Twentieth Century, America becomes more active in protecting and promoting western values in World War I and World War II, making the world safe for democracy, and, through President Wilson's call for a League of Nations, promoting the American notion that the world could be made peaceful and prosperous if the world would simply accept the American notions of cooperation, stable political order, gradual economic change, and democratic decision-making. "Wilsonianism... may be described as a conscious attempt to redefine United States Foreign policy to restructure international order in close connection with domestic order." (Iriye, in Ikenberry, p. 324). The domestic policies that brought peace and prosperity to America could bring the same peace and prosperity to the rest of the world.

During the middle and late Twentieth Century, the United States becomes active in support of nationalistic and pro-western movements throughout the globe, especially during the "Cold War" with the Soviet Union. However, American activity often takes a more covert than overt form. America is more likely to send aid to the anti-communist forces than to send American troops, and is more likely to intervene in the name of national security than to admit to an overt desire to support western values. There are actually several cases, including the Katanga independence movement in the Congo and the civil war in 1980s and 1990s Cambodia and Laos, when the United States actually gives support to the less-pro-Western forces.

The blessings of American beliefs and values are provided throughout the world through military conquest, the Marshall Plan, religious missionary activity, the American University abroad, development banking institutions and a host of other means. Once the peoples of the world see the benefits America can provide, many of the leaders of foreign nations seek to emulate American values, norms, expectations, and behaviors in an effort to secure for themselves the foreign aid and military aid blessings that come with "westernization."

Once a portion of the foreign nation's population accepts American values and norms, the United States government often defends these enclaves diplomatically, as in the case of the Shah of Iran, militarily, as in the case of South Vietnam, or financially, as in the case of Israel. The acceptance of American values by foreign governments and people, brings to these nations and these people American foreign aid, development bank loans, American business entrepreneurs and investors, American tourists, the Peace Corps, and the moral support of the American people. The rejection of American values brings declining foreign trade and foreign aid, public hostility, disapproval, ridicule and abandonment.

From the Renaissance until the 1970s, the "Western" nations are aggressors in the world of ideas, values, and morals. Christianity, capitalism, participatory government, consumerism, socialism, materialism, industrialism, and the sciences both the social sciences and the natural sciences are actively promoted for adoption around the world, and are, in some cases, forced upon the nations and people of the world. In the 1960s and 1970s, the non-western world counterattacked. Native religions challenged or modified Christianity; Islam began to aggress against Christianity and modernism; communalism and cooperation challenged capitalism; enlightened authoritarianism challenged democracy; socialism and minimalism challenged materialism and consumerism; environmentalism challenged industrialism; appropriate technology challenged high technology; and "new age" mysticism and a return to traditional folklore challenged science.

In spite of the counter-attack, as the Twenty-first Century opens, the United States continues to support the adoption of "Western" values abroad and continues to reward those nations adopting American-style values, institutions and life-styles. In Afghanistan and Iraq, America is even willing to use armed force to encourage the introduction of western cultural and political values.

Principle 2:

Support for Western Values

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