U.S. foreign policy mission to democratize

The relationship between democracy and U.S. foreign relations is fraught with dilemmas and contradictions.

On the one hand, as we have discussed over the course of the semester, defining itself as a “city upon a hill” and an exemplar model of democracy, the United States has linked democratic principles to U.S. foreign relations from early on. From George Washington forward, successive administrations have explained American foreign policy as an effort to promote and even export democracy.

On the other hand, we have also identified many occasions in the history of U.S. foreign policy when democracy seems to be at odds with national security, and one is often compromised in defense of the other.

-Prompt / 

What are the costs and benefits of the U.S. foreign policy mission to democratize? To what extent, if any, is U.S. foreign policy shaped by guiding principles of democracy? To what extent, if any, is U.S. foreign policy undemocratic?

You have to use evidence to support your response from class materials (books)

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• Books used in class

- William Appleman Williams ( The Tragedy of American Diplomacy )

- Steven Kinzer ( Overthrow ) America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

- Charles Murray ( American Exceptionalism )

- Richard Haass ( A World in Disarray ) American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order