The Enduring Myth of 'Isolationism'

Isolationism is a pejorative propaganda term that should be excluded from foreign policy analysis.

Charles Kupchan tells a familiar, misleading story:

After the errant attempt of the original America First movement to keep the United States out of World War II, “isolationism” became a dirty word.

The isolationist label has always been a smear, and that is how it is always used. Isolationism was a dirty word from the start because it was meant to caricature and demonize the position of other internationalists that didn’t want to pursue a more ambitious and militarized foreign policy. As Stephen Wertheim has shown in Tomorrow, the World, “isolationism was a phantom enemy. The moniker was hurled at those who sought to restrict U.S. security commitments but wished to participate internationally in every other way.”¹ The word itself was scarcely used before the 1930s, and no one used that word to describe his own views. It is always wildly inaccurate because it is a term used for denunciation and vilification rather than understanding. Isolationism is a pejorative propaganda term that should be excluded from foreign policy analysis. It never illuminates anything because it is designed to confuse and distort.