The Domestic Politics of World Power, 1890-1945

Suny At Binghamton, Binghamton NY

Investigators

Abstract

The project will study the sources of support and opposition to American foreign policy during the nation's rise as a world power. Between 1890 and 1945, the United States transformed itself from a marginal player in world politics into a superpower with global interests. The key steps along the way provoked considerable domestic political controversy. Explaining the reasons for these debates is important not only for historical reasons but also because it bears on the broader question of why divisions over national security issues exist. Because these issues ostensibly involve national interests that everyone shares, explaining political conflict over them has proven more difficult than explaining differences over foreign economic policy. The project will bring new data and recent developments in the understanding of the relationship between economic interests and foreign policy decisions to bear on longstanding economic interpretations of American foreign policy during the 1890-1945 period. Earlier work stresses the importance of the search for overseas markets in shaping American foreign policy but largely ignores the role of demands for tariff protection against foreign competition in the American domestic market. More recent research in political science suggests that trade protection can help explain some persistent questions unanswered in older economic interpretations of American foreign policy. Demands for protection came mainly from American manufacturers concerned about European competition. This fact helps explain why advocates of the search for foreign markets, who came mainly from the industrial Northeast, focused on less developed areas of the world, even though these areas received a small share of American trade. Similarly, it helps explain why the Americans from the most export-dependent region of the country, the South, were far less enthusiastic about this search for overseas markets and the more activist foreign policy that it implied. They preferred trade with Europe, something that required lower American tariffs. Largely because of the limitations of the available data, even the older claims about the political economy of American foreign policy during this period have not been rigorously tested. The necessary data exist but not in a readily accessible form. The funds requested in this proposal will make it possible to gather the data on international trade, industrial and agricultural production within American states, and congressional foreign policy debates needed for these empirical tests. In presenting the results of this quantitative research, it is critically important to engage more conventional accounts of American foreign policy, which rely almost exclusively on qualitative evidence gathered through archival research. The investigator will thus review the qualitative sources in addition to collecting and analyzing quantitative data. Presentations of the results of this research, including the quantitative portions of it, will be designed to engage the broadest possible audience, not just those versed in quantitative research methods. This project will shed light on historically important debates about the rise of the United States as a world power. As the popularity of works on Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and other prominent figures from this period suggests, the topic continues to interest a broad section of the educated public. The data gathered for this project will also be useful to scholars interested in other aspects of the political and economic development of the United States. The project will provide valuable research experience to graduate students at Binghamton University, as well as informing the teaching of undergraduate classes on US foreign policy and international relations more generally.