Start Date
18-3-2025 12:45 PM
End Date
18-3-2025 2:00 PM
Level of Education
Doctoral
Keywords
Armed diplomacy, democracy, democratic consolidation, imperialism, liberal wars, manifest destiny, U.S. military interventions
Abstract
Between 1776 and 2019, the United States undertook over 400 military interventions. The shift from an isolationist to an interventionist U.S. foreign policy choice has captured scholars’ interest in investigating the rationales and impact of these military interventions on democratic consolidation worldwide. The central research question is: How have the U.S. military interventions enabled democratic consolidation? This research paper identifies two schools of thought. On the one hand, researchers argue that the U.S. military interventions only support the liberal principles of the founding era, drawing on the assumptions that the Founding Fathers believed that American moral and political values were universal and worthy of being spread globally. On the other hand, researchers target the U.S. military interventions to consolidate American imperialism. This research paper discusses the impact of the U.S. military interventions on democracy through the theoretical lens of democratic consolidation and conservative internationalism. Using a comparative case study design of the U.S. military interventions during the War on Terror between 2001 and 2021, this paper concludes that U.S. interventionist foreign policy is grounded in the philosophy of New Manifest Destiny, which, beyond the expansion of the United States from the East to the West Coast under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny widely spread during James Polk’s presidency, holds that it is God’s destiny for the United States to defend and spread democracy, order, and justice worldwide.
U. S. Military Interventions for Democracy: A Covered Imperialism or a New Manifest Destiny?
Between 1776 and 2019, the United States undertook over 400 military interventions. The shift from an isolationist to an interventionist U.S. foreign policy choice has captured scholars’ interest in investigating the rationales and impact of these military interventions on democratic consolidation worldwide. The central research question is: How have the U.S. military interventions enabled democratic consolidation? This research paper identifies two schools of thought. On the one hand, researchers argue that the U.S. military interventions only support the liberal principles of the founding era, drawing on the assumptions that the Founding Fathers believed that American moral and political values were universal and worthy of being spread globally. On the other hand, researchers target the U.S. military interventions to consolidate American imperialism. This research paper discusses the impact of the U.S. military interventions on democracy through the theoretical lens of democratic consolidation and conservative internationalism. Using a comparative case study design of the U.S. military interventions during the War on Terror between 2001 and 2021, this paper concludes that U.S. interventionist foreign policy is grounded in the philosophy of New Manifest Destiny, which, beyond the expansion of the United States from the East to the West Coast under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny widely spread during James Polk’s presidency, holds that it is God’s destiny for the United States to defend and spread democracy, order, and justice worldwide.
