ABSTRACT

The first and second centuries of American foreign policy could scarcely be more different, reflecting the very different place of the United States in the world over time. When the U.S. Constitution took effect, in 1789, the fledgling nation was looking westward across the North American continent rather than eastward, back toward the intrigues of the Old World. Thomas Jefferson warned against “entangling alliances,” and George Washington devoted much of his farewell address to extolling American geographic isolation as an opportunity rather than an obstacle to its development. The framers of the Constitution deliberately made it difficult for the new country to enter treaties by demanding ratification by a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate and assigned the power to wage war to the president while reserving declarations of war to Congress.