Power and Restraint : The Rise of the United States, 1898–1941

At the end of the nineteenth century, the United States emerged as an economic colossus in command of a new empire. Yet for the next forty years the United States eschewed the kind of aggressive grand strategy that had marked other rising imperial powers in favor of a policy of moderation. In Power and Restraint , Jeffrey W. Meiser explores why the United States―counter to widely accepted wisdom in international relations theory―chose the course it did. Using thirty-four carefully researched historical cases, Meiser asserts that domestic political institutions and culture played a decisive role in preventing the mobilization of resources necessary to implement an expansionist grand strategy. These factors included traditional congressional opposition to executive branch ambitions, voter resistance to European-style imperialism, and the personal antipathy to expansionism felt by presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. The web of resilient and redundant political restraints halted or limited expansionist ambitions and shaped the United States into an historical anomaly, a rising great power characterized by prudence and limited international ambitions. American Foreign Policy Between The Late Nineteenth Century And The Beginning Of World War Ii Is Anomalous From The Perspective Of International Relations (ir) Theory. During This Period, The Us Was A Rising Power Par Excellence, But It Did Relatively Little To Transform This Newfound Power Into Global Influence. Despite The Dramatic Increase In Its Economic Power, The Us Maintained Its Traditional Distaste For European Modes Of Diplomacy And Imperialism, And It Failed To Capitalize On Many Opportunities To Expand Its Political-military Power. This Behavior Runs Counter To Most Thinking In Ir Theory, Which Is That Rising States Tend To Become Revisionist Powers Seeking To Expand Their Influence And Challenge The Existing Order. Jeffrey Meiser Concludes That American Strategic Restraint Was Caused By Democratic Domestic Political Institutions And Norms. This Work Is Important For Understanding More About The History Of America's International Relations, And It Is Also Important For Understanding How Regime Type In Today's Rising Powers, Namely China And India, Is Likely To Shape The Character And Impact Of Their Ascent In The International System. Introduction -- Theories Of Rising Power Expansion And Restraint -- Origins Of Expansionism, 1898-1900 -- Consolidation And Backlash, 1899-1903 -- Adaptation And Recession, 1904-1912 -- Expansionism Transformed, 1913-1921 -- Republican Interregnum, 1921-1933 -- From Nonintervention To Noninterference, 1933-1941 -- Conclusion -- Index. Jeffrey W. Meiser. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 271-292) And Index.