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İstisnaî Millet: Amerikan İstisnacılığı ABD Dış Politikasını Nasıl Etkiler?

Year 2024, Issue: 62, 17 - 39, 30.12.2024

Abstract

Üstünlük, seçilmişlik ve tanrısal bir misyon yüklenmeyle tanımlanan Amerikan İstisnacılığı kavramı hem Amerikan ulusal kimliğini hem de dış politikasını etkilemiştir. Amerikan İstisnacılığı kavramının ABD’nin liderlik eğiliminin anlaşılmasında temel bir araç görevi gördüğünü öne süren bu makale, neorealizm, neoliberalizm ve konstrüktivizm gibi teorik çerçeveleri ele alarak, kavramın tek taraflı eylemleri ve ABD’nin küresel ilişkilerdeki liderlik çabalarını nasıl şekillendirdiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Politikacılar ve halkın benimsediği özneler-arası yapıların yani sıra, ideolojik ilkelerin ulusal
çıkarlarla kesişimini gözler önüne sermeyi amaçlayan bu çalışma, eleştirel bir Konstrüktivist perspektiften hareket ederek, Amerikan İstisnacılığı kavramının esnek yapısını ve uluslararası ilişkilerde yol
açtığı çelişkileri ele almaktadır.

References

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  • Béland, Daniel. “Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Change.” Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 16, no. 5, 2009, pp. 701-718.
  • Brickhouse, Anna. Transamerican Literary Relations and the Nineteenth-Century Public Sphere. Cambridge UP, 2004.
  • Campbell, David. Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. U of Minnesota P, 1992.
  • Caporaso, James A. “International Relations Theory and Multilateralism: The Search for Foundations.” International Organization, vol. 46, no. 3, 1992, pp. 599-632.
  • Chollet, Derek, and James Goldgeier. America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11. Public Affairs, 2008.
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  • Gilmore, Jason. “American Exceptionalism in the American Mind: Presidential Discourse, National Identity, and US Public Opinion,” Communication Studies, vol. 66, no. 3, 2015, pp. 301- 320.
  • Guth, James L. “The Religious Roots of Foreign Policy Exceptionalism.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs, vol. 10, no. 2, 2012, pp. 77-85.
  • Frum, David. “Is America Still the ‘Shining City on a Hill’?.” The Atlantic, 1 January 2021.
  • Heywood, Andrew. Global Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  • Hodgson, Godfrey. The Myth of American Exceptionalism. Yale UP, 2009.
  • Hopf, Ted. “The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory.” International Security, vol. 23, no. 1, 1998, pp. 171-200.
  • Huntington, Samuel P. American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony. Harvard UP, 1981.
  • Hurrell, Andrew. “Introduction.” The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, edited by Hedley Bull, Palgrave, 2002.
  • Ikenberry et al. The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-first Century. Princeton UP, 2009.
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “Inaugural Address.” 1801. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.asp.
  • Kagan, Robert. Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. Knopf, 2003.
  • Kennedy, John F. “The New Frontier. Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention,” 1960. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/ kennedy_dnc_1960.asp.
  • Kitchen, Nicholas. “Systemic Pressures and Domestic Ideas: A Neoclassical Realist Model of Grand Strategy Formation.” Review of International Studies, vol. 36, no. 1, 2010, pp. 117-143.
  • Kuehl, William F. and Gary B. Ostrower. “Internationalism.” Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, edited by Alexander DeConde, Richard Dean Burns, and Fredrick Logevall, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002, pp. 241-259.
  • Leopold, Joseph, and Timothy McKeown. “Is American Foreign Policy Exceptional? An Empirical Analysis.” Political Science Quarterly, vol. 110, no. 3, 1995, pp. 369-384.
  • Lincoln, Abraham. “Gettysburg Address.” 1863. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/gettyb. asp.
  • Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
  • Löfflman, Georg. “Leading From Behind – American Exceptionalism and President Obama’s Post-American Vision of Hegemony.” Geopolitics, vol. 20, no. 2, 2015, pp. 308-332.
  • Marshall, Paul. “Donald Trump Will Amplify American Exceptionalism and Divergence from Europe.” Financial Times, 14 November 2024.
  • Mead, Walter Russell. Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. Routledge, 2002.
  • Mearsheimer, John. et al., “War with Iraq is not in America’s National Interest.” The New York Times, 26 September 2002.
  • McCartney, Paul T. Power and Progress: American National Identity, the War of 1898, and the Rise of American Imperialism. Louisiana State UP, 2006.
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  • McCormick, John. “American Exceptionalism: The Implications for Europe.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 2005, pp. 199-215.
  • McCrisken, Trevor B. American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2003.
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  • Motter, Jeff. “American Exceptionalism and the Rhetoric of Humanitarian Militarism: The Case of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Relief Effort.” Communication Studies, vol. 61, no. 5, 2010, pp. 507-525.
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  • Restad, Hilde Eliassen. “Old Paradigms in History Die Hard in Political Science: US Foreign Policy and American Exceptionalism.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2011, pp. 55-74.
  • ---. American Exceptionalism: An Idea that Made a Nation and Remade the World. Routledge, 2015.
  • Ruggie, John Gerard. “The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy.” International Security, vol. 21, no. 4, 1997, pp. 89-125.
  • ---. “Interests, Identity and American Foreign Policy.” Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization, edited by John Gerard Ruggie, Routledge, 1998, pp. 203-218.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. The Cycles of American History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986.
  • Smith, Anthony D. National Identity. U of Nevada P, 1991.
  • Skidmore, David. “Understanding the Unilateralist Turn in the US. Foreign Policy.” Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 1, no. 2, 2005, pp. 207-228.
  • Tennenhouse, Leonard. The Importance of Feeling English: American Literature and the British Diaspora, 1750-1850. Princeton UP, 2007.
  • Tumulty, Karen. “American Exceptionalism: An Old Idea and a New Political Battle.” The Washington Post, 29 November 2010.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. Henry Holt and Company, 1920.
  • Walt, Stephen M. “American Primacy: Its Prospects and Pitfalls.” Naval War College Review, vol. 55, no. 2, 2002, pp. 9-28.
  • ---. “American Exceptionalism: A Realist View.” Foreign Policy, 6 December 2010, foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/06/americanexceptionalism-a-realist-view/.
  • ---. “The Myth of American Exceptionalism.” Foreign Policy, 11 October 2011, foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/the-myth-ofamerican-exceptionalism/.
  • ---. “What Would A Realist World Have Looked Like?,” Foreign Policy, 8 January 2016, https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/08/what-would-a-realist-world-have-looked-like-iraq-syria-iranobama- bush-clinton/.
  • Waltz, Kenneth. Theory of International Politics. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1979.
  • Washington, George. “Farewell Address.” 1796. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.
  • Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge UP, 1999.

The Exceptional Nation: How American Exceptionalism Influences US Foreign Policy

Year 2024, Issue: 62, 17 - 39, 30.12.2024

Abstract

Defined by beliefs in superiority, divine selection, and a perceived divine mission, American Exceptionalism has influenced American national identity and foreign policy. This article examines the
instrumentalization of this idea in shaping US foreign policy, arguing that it serves as a fundamental lens through which the US tendency toward leadership is understood. By engaging with the theoretical frameworks of neorealism, neoliberalism, and constructivism, this study highlights that American Exceptionalism has driven unilateral policies and the US’s self-perceived leadership role in global affairs. The analysis explores the intersubjective structures policymakers, and the public adopted, revealing how ideological principles intersect with national interests. The article also investigates how AE has fueled US ambitions for global dominance and the contradictions of this idea within contemporary international relations.

References

  • Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 1983.
  • Béland, Daniel. “Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Change.” Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 16, no. 5, 2009, pp. 701-718.
  • Brickhouse, Anna. Transamerican Literary Relations and the Nineteenth-Century Public Sphere. Cambridge UP, 2004.
  • Campbell, David. Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. U of Minnesota P, 1992.
  • Caporaso, James A. “International Relations Theory and Multilateralism: The Search for Foundations.” International Organization, vol. 46, no. 3, 1992, pp. 599-632.
  • Chollet, Derek, and James Goldgeier. America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11. Public Affairs, 2008.
  • Ereli, Gökhan. The Impact of American Exceptionalism on US Foreign Policy. Master’s Thesis. Middle East Technical University, 2018.
  • Gilmore, Jason. “American Exceptionalism in the American Mind: Presidential Discourse, National Identity, and US Public Opinion,” Communication Studies, vol. 66, no. 3, 2015, pp. 301- 320.
  • Guth, James L. “The Religious Roots of Foreign Policy Exceptionalism.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs, vol. 10, no. 2, 2012, pp. 77-85.
  • Frum, David. “Is America Still the ‘Shining City on a Hill’?.” The Atlantic, 1 January 2021.
  • Heywood, Andrew. Global Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  • Hodgson, Godfrey. The Myth of American Exceptionalism. Yale UP, 2009.
  • Hopf, Ted. “The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory.” International Security, vol. 23, no. 1, 1998, pp. 171-200.
  • Huntington, Samuel P. American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony. Harvard UP, 1981.
  • Hurrell, Andrew. “Introduction.” The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, edited by Hedley Bull, Palgrave, 2002.
  • Ikenberry et al. The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-first Century. Princeton UP, 2009.
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “Inaugural Address.” 1801. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.asp.
  • Kagan, Robert. Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. Knopf, 2003.
  • Kennedy, John F. “The New Frontier. Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention,” 1960. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/ kennedy_dnc_1960.asp.
  • Kitchen, Nicholas. “Systemic Pressures and Domestic Ideas: A Neoclassical Realist Model of Grand Strategy Formation.” Review of International Studies, vol. 36, no. 1, 2010, pp. 117-143.
  • Kuehl, William F. and Gary B. Ostrower. “Internationalism.” Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, edited by Alexander DeConde, Richard Dean Burns, and Fredrick Logevall, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002, pp. 241-259.
  • Leopold, Joseph, and Timothy McKeown. “Is American Foreign Policy Exceptional? An Empirical Analysis.” Political Science Quarterly, vol. 110, no. 3, 1995, pp. 369-384.
  • Lincoln, Abraham. “Gettysburg Address.” 1863. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/gettyb. asp.
  • Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
  • Löfflman, Georg. “Leading From Behind – American Exceptionalism and President Obama’s Post-American Vision of Hegemony.” Geopolitics, vol. 20, no. 2, 2015, pp. 308-332.
  • Marshall, Paul. “Donald Trump Will Amplify American Exceptionalism and Divergence from Europe.” Financial Times, 14 November 2024.
  • Mead, Walter Russell. Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. Routledge, 2002.
  • Mearsheimer, John. et al., “War with Iraq is not in America’s National Interest.” The New York Times, 26 September 2002.
  • McCartney, Paul T. Power and Progress: American National Identity, the War of 1898, and the Rise of American Imperialism. Louisiana State UP, 2006.
  • McCoy, Terrence. “How Joseph Stalin Invented ‘American Exceptionalism.’” The Atlantic, 15 March 2012.
  • McCormick, John. “American Exceptionalism: The Implications for Europe.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 2005, pp. 199-215.
  • McCrisken, Trevor B. American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2003.
  • McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
  • Motter, Jeff. “American Exceptionalism and the Rhetoric of Humanitarian Militarism: The Case of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Relief Effort.” Communication Studies, vol. 61, no. 5, 2010, pp. 507-525.
  • Nye, Joseph S. The Future of Power. Public Affairs, 2011.
  • Obama, Barack. “News Conference.” 4 April 2009.
  • Pease, Donald E. The New American Exceptionalism. U of Minnesota P, 2009.
  • Restad, Hilde Eliassen. “Old Paradigms in History Die Hard in Political Science: US Foreign Policy and American Exceptionalism.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2011, pp. 55-74.
  • ---. American Exceptionalism: An Idea that Made a Nation and Remade the World. Routledge, 2015.
  • Ruggie, John Gerard. “The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy.” International Security, vol. 21, no. 4, 1997, pp. 89-125.
  • ---. “Interests, Identity and American Foreign Policy.” Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization, edited by John Gerard Ruggie, Routledge, 1998, pp. 203-218.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. The Cycles of American History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986.
  • Smith, Anthony D. National Identity. U of Nevada P, 1991.
  • Skidmore, David. “Understanding the Unilateralist Turn in the US. Foreign Policy.” Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 1, no. 2, 2005, pp. 207-228.
  • Tennenhouse, Leonard. The Importance of Feeling English: American Literature and the British Diaspora, 1750-1850. Princeton UP, 2007.
  • Tumulty, Karen. “American Exceptionalism: An Old Idea and a New Political Battle.” The Washington Post, 29 November 2010.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. Henry Holt and Company, 1920.
  • Walt, Stephen M. “American Primacy: Its Prospects and Pitfalls.” Naval War College Review, vol. 55, no. 2, 2002, pp. 9-28.
  • ---. “American Exceptionalism: A Realist View.” Foreign Policy, 6 December 2010, foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/06/americanexceptionalism-a-realist-view/.
  • ---. “The Myth of American Exceptionalism.” Foreign Policy, 11 October 2011, foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/the-myth-ofamerican-exceptionalism/.
  • ---. “What Would A Realist World Have Looked Like?,” Foreign Policy, 8 January 2016, https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/08/what-would-a-realist-world-have-looked-like-iraq-syria-iranobama- bush-clinton/.
  • Waltz, Kenneth. Theory of International Politics. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1979.
  • Washington, George. “Farewell Address.” 1796. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.
  • Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge UP, 1999.
There are 54 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects North American Language, Literature and Culture, Sociology (Other)
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Gökhan Ereli 0000-0003-4670-7688

Early Pub Date December 30, 2024
Publication Date December 30, 2024
Submission Date July 1, 2024
Acceptance Date December 26, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Issue: 62

Cite

MLA Ereli, Gökhan. “The Exceptional Nation: How American Exceptionalism Influences US Foreign Policy”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 62, 2024, pp. 17-39.

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey