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Wednesday, May 14, 2003

# Posted 5:41 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

OVERSIMPLIFIED: While Patrick is getting busy at his motel, Rachel has been thinking about American foreign policy. She writes that
I just read through your Monday post--you may want to hedge a bit more before going on at such length about an unread book! Having read Mead a few months ago, I can tell you that his commentators, and thus you, have way oversimplified his ideas. In fact, he largely agrees with your points. His four "types" are NOT the classic IR types--they are much more socially rooted in the American psyche and history, and are much more complex. They also all have good and bad characteristics that he is quick to point out. Jacksonianism is thus not "bad", it is associated with various traits which have various effects on our national policy. His end assertion is that America is lucky to have all four traditions, because they are all needed to balance us from going too far in any one direction.

Wilsonianism, for instance, is equated with a U.S. based mission--from the missionaries, to wars for democracy--basically, it is about a great power linking its destiny to the spread of an ideology. He ties Wilsonianism to the democratic peace thesis and thus the need to spread democracy, AS WELL AS the desire to generally prevent war. In many ways, Bush would very much fall under Mead's Wilsonianism--particularly due to the religious motivation that inspires much of his worldview.

Jackson, on the other hand, is not seen as a bloodthirsty hick. Rather, Jacksonians are seen as motivated primarily by honor, and as having a much stronger "honor" gauge in international relations--as opposed to Hamiltonian's "interest" gauge or Wilsonians "democratic" or "human rights" triggers. Jacksonians do want to fight affronts to their honor--that was why Mead was worried about an unthought response to Sept. 11. sometimes, fighting for honor is a very good thing--you and I have enough Kagan to know that! He also sees Jacksonians as believing wars should be fought to the point of victory--not to the point of interest, or to the point of intruding upon civilian rights. Jacksons are also often isolationists in his mind. Basically, they have a code that highly respects honor, and sees different sets of rules as applicable to people within the community (America, allies) and outside (enemies).
Point taken. Time to read the book, eh?
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