How Woodrow Wilson's vision of making the world safe for democracy has
been betrayed--and how America can fulfill it again
The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's
greatest triumphs as a world power--and also its biggest failures.
Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's
efforts at the League of Nations to "make the world safe for democracy,"
the United States steered a course in world affairs that would
eventually win the Cold War. Yet in the 1990s, Wilsonianism turned
imperialist, contributing directly to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and
the continued failures of American foreign policy.
Why Wilson Matters explains how the liberal internationalist community
can regain a sense of identity and purpose following the betrayal of
Wilson's vision by the brash "neo-Wilsonianism" being pursued today.
Drawing on Wilson's original writings and speeches, Tony Smith traces
how his thinking about America's role in the world evolved in the years
leading up to and during his presidency, and how the Wilsonian tradition
went on to influence American foreign policy in the decades that
followed--for good and for ill. He traces the tradition's evolution from
its "classic" era with Wilson, to its "hegemonic" stage during the Cold
War, to its "imperialist" phase today. Smith calls for an end to
reckless forms of U.S. foreign intervention, and a return to the
prudence and "eternal vigilance" of Wilson's own time.
Why Wilson Matters renews hope that the United States might again
become effectively liberal by returning to the sense of realism that
Wilson espoused, one where the promotion of democracy around the world
is balanced by the understanding that such efforts are not likely to
come quickly and without costs.
