From Exceptionalism to American Universalism

We are going to look at a number of structural issues and problems relating to American foreign policy in the long term. We have to look at the long term; we will see how this foreign policy is structured, according to what guidelines, how the relationship with the world of the United States was built up gradually from the middle of the 19th century to the present day, and what has existed since the beginning of American history.

We, the People…

Exceptionalism is the idea that there is an American exception that the United States is a particular country with a particular destiny. This is not very original, but it is particularly strong in the United States and important considering the importance of the United States in world geopolitics and world order during the 20th century.

Universalism is the idea that a country has a particular destiny but that this country understands, is aware of the certainty and willingness to be a model for the rest of the world.

This balancing is something that is a structural balancing act in U. S. relations to the world and in the context of U. S. foreign policy. It is a country that, like any other country, has built a foreign policy whose objective is to assert its power and defend its particular interests, and at the same time a foreign policy that goes further than that, of power, great power and superpower. It is a foreign policy that defends national interests but goes further than that, presenting a model, in American foreign policy and the way it is implemented, this model should apply to the whole of humanity in a future embodying the future of humanity.

We will first focus on the notion of exceptionalism, and then on the crystallization of universalism, where this notion of universalism becomes preponderant in American foreign policy, especially as the weight of the United States will increase in international relations. Universalism will no longer only be a discourse disconnected from reality, but a reality with the growing weight of the United States in international relations and finally the dilemma of American foreign policy.