New Diplomacy, Old World -- Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations

Author: Han Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
Features: Woodrow Wilson is one of the most controversial U.S. presidents. During his tenure as president of the United States (1913–1920), the country had become the most powerful nation in the world in terms of strength. Wilson clearly chose a new foreign policy strategy for the United States to lead the world. However, the world of the 20th century was both different from the world at the time of the founding of the United States and could not allow the United States to dominate like the old imperial powers of Britain and France. At this time, the world began a process of both globalization and diversification, becoming complex and requiring reevaluation. Wilson could not escape the constraints of history, and the U.S. foreign policy tradition left a deep imprint on his policies. The old international relations framework represented by Britain and France also became a major obstacle to his foreign policy strategy. This book examines the process of Wilson's League of Nations policy, from its proposal to its failure, from the perspective of the conflict between tradition and reality, to understand some characteristics of Wilson's diplomacy: leveraging the unique geopolitical position and strong economic power of the United States to promote a policy under the banner of collective security, adopting a seemingly moderate stance while actually surpassing European powers in strength, in order to achieve the goal of dominating the world. However, when the United States sought to use its own strength to make the world conform to its goals, it found that the diversified international environment and domestic factors left it with more ambition than ability. This is also a characteristic of U.S. foreign policy throughout the 20th century.