天定命运与美国外交政策.doc

Manifest Destiny and American foreign policyManifest Destiny, firstly denounced by Whigs in the 1840s, was regarded as the justification to expand Americas geographical and political boundaries. And advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only ethical but that it was readily apparent (manifest) and inexorable (destiny). Though it fell into disuse after the mid-19th century, it was still inherited and developed by the later presidents, which could be founded in American foreign policies. Whats more, the view of Manifest Destiny has become an important part of American peoples world outlook and values nowadays. An American political expert called Richard Barnett once even said that Sense of Mission” and belief in the superiority of their own ethnic are just as the American civil religion. 1 Firstly, the origins of Manifest DestinyThis conviction of a destined glorious future for the United States had roots in colonial times. 2The influential Puritan John Winthrop wrote, We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. 2From then on, many colonial leaders adopted time-honored expansion imagery from the Bible, and regarded the North America as the new Promised Land to justify conquering new lands and dominating other cultures.In order to separate from Britain, the leaders claimed that the North American colonists were special individuals selected by God to rule over an extended territory, which greatly helped their people fight with the troops of Great Britain. Finally, the American people wined and established the great country. However, the leaders found that the land they owned was too little to support the development of their country constantly. To expand the national economy, acquire more raw materials for fledgling industries, and secure new commercial outposts, particularly those of the Far East, they need to expand because expansion would ensure new markets for an increasing U.S. industrial output. In a word, expansion was linked to the survival of republicanism. And fortunately, the west and the south of America were isolated areas at that time, so they can get the cheap land easily. And during that time, great migrations and the push to the West were taken placed in America, which had greatly facilitated the development of America.I will give you some examples to illustrate the function of manifest destiny in promoting the development of America. For instance, rely on these tenets, Presidents Polk and Tyler added more than 800 million acres of Mexican land to the United States in the mid-1800s through war and confiscation. 3 Later in this century, again relying overtly on Manifest Destiny in the Spanish-American war, President WiUiam McKinley annexed in one status or another Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, and part of Samoa.3 Since then, the size of America was expanded to 51 states from 13 states when it was founded. And just during this time, the countrys population grew from about 5 million in 1800 to more than 23 million by midcentury. So it is not exaggerating to say that without the view of Manifest Destiny, America could not have been the strongest country in the world.Secondly, Manifest Destiny influences the American foreign policy greatly. Though these events mentioned above are far from today, the view of manifest destiny produced at that time is still influence the its people and politic greatly nowadays.To America itself, its leaders think that America has served the world as an inspiring example of freedom and democracy, exerting its good influence upon other nations, through their adoption of American ways or by their incorporation into America. And historically, we can divide the tradition of the American foreign policy into two parts, Isolationism and expansionism, which are the reflection of the view of Manifest Destiny.1 On the surface, these two policies are contradictory, but look beneath, they have the same goal, in the other word, is to achieve the mission in different ways. With the development of countries force power, the hegemonism has turned into the core and soul of the United States diplomacy thought. And based on this ideology, America realize their mission in a much more violent and aggressive way, so this view was increasingly dangerous. With time going on, the view of Manifest Destiny reflected differently in different eras. We know that in the recent twenty years, America had launched three wars- Persian Gulf War, Kosovo War, and the war in Libya. And all these wars are launched under the excuse of humanitarianism.Bush once defined the Persian Gulf War as a just war and quotes from Abraham Lincolns speeches to the effect that we are on Gods side in the war. However, nobody will believe that America launch the war without any interest consideration under the huge financial expenditure and enormous casualties. As I see it, the reason that they launched the war is to pursue their profit and conquest the other countries who are unfriendly to America. So they are unjust and inhumane war.There I will give you some examples to illustrate the Manifest Destiny used in the two gulf wars. The first Persian Gulf War(2 August 1990 28 February 1991), was a war waged by a U.N. authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraqs invasion and annexation of Kuwait. America and the United Nations gave several public justifications for involvement in the conflict, the most prominent being the Iraqi violation of Kuwaiti territorial integrity. Bush want to made America a shining example to the rest of the world, this is why he defined the Persian Gulf War as a just war. But as I see it, Bush wanted to establish the new world order according its own thoughts, realizing its hegemony by defeat its enemies, rather than help Kuwait defeat Iraq.The Second Gulf War, also referred to as Iraq War, began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by the United States under the administration of President George W. Bush and the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Tony Blair(Schifferes, Steve (March 18, 2003).4 Prior to the invasion, the governments of America and the United Kingdom asserted that the possibility of Iraq employing weapons of mass destruction threatened their security and that of their coalition and regional allies. Other reasons for the invasion given by the governments of the attacking countries included Iraqs financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi government human rights abuse,5 Wolfowitz, P. (May 30, 2003)and an effort to spread democracy to the country. If liberating a nation from an egregious dictatorship had been the initial impulse behind the invasion of Iraq, it might have been a just war . However, not all the people like democracy and not all the countries can adapted to democratic system. What was worse, during this war, millions of people died and the rest people in this country suffered with terror and hunger greatly. Is this the so called “freedom”, “democracy” and “evangelization”? No. And in my opinion, the Americas invasion toward Iraq is mainly out of consideration for controlling the oil natural resources and enhancing its influence in the mid-east. I once looked up on a blog written by Charles Sullivan, he said that America has always purveyed, the continued theft of land from sovereign nations, destruction of biological