Conférence organisée par l’équipe Monde anglophone contemporain du laboratoire BABEL

Conférence animée par Hilde Eliassen Restad, maîtresse de conférences à la Oslo New University College

Présentation

In this chapter, I examine the pervasiveness of the isolationist myth, using its connections to the exceptionalist nineteenth-century narrative of Manifest Destiny as a case study of this broader phenomenon. I argue that the reason U.S. foreign policy in the 19th century was understood as “manifest destiny” at the time and later labeled “isolationist,” as opposed to settler colonialist and imperialist, stems from the ideological influence of American exceptionalist narratives. The isolationist myth promotes the notion that the United States is innocent and morally superior, fitting cleanly within the meta-narrative of American exceptionalism. Since American exceptionalism has saturated not only the rhetoric and content of U.S. foreign policymaking but also the academic study of U.S. foreign policy, and public discourse in general, the isolationist misrepresentation of U.S. foreign policy history continues to permeate the traditional narratives to which policymakers and scholars subscribe. The chapter combines intellectual history of the narrative of exceptional isolationism with a historical genealogy of the term “isolationist”/”isolationism.