ABSTRACT
As a nation, the United States was not only born free, Robert Keohane once remarked (1983a: 9), it was also “born lucky.” It found itself far removed from the continuous jostling of European power politics, protected by vast oceans on either side while adjoined by relatively weak and usually friendly neighbors to the north and south, largely self-sufficient in raw materials, able to expand into continental scale, and a magnet attracting a steady influx of newcomers eager to break with their past and make a fresh start. Accordingly, the United States, before the turn of this century, luxuriated in the posture, as described by John Quincy Adams, of being “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all… the champion and vindicator only of her own” (quoted in LaFeber 1989:80). Thus, America’s traditional aversion to “entangling alliances,” first expressed in George Washington’s farewell address, flowed naturally from its geopolitical constitution (Gilbert 1961).
