Daring to be great: American statecraft in the progressive era

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the transition of American statecraft away from the “exemplarist” statecraft of the Founders’ era of United States’ foreign policy towards the “progressive imperialism” of the late nineteenth century. It identifies the consolidation of the power of the federal government and westward expansion at the expense of both Native Americans and the territorial claims of number of European powers as major contributing factors in the development of “vindicationist” forms of statecraft that posited crucial linkages between domestic political and economic stability, and geopolitical dynamics beyond the Western hemisphere. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the ascent of such “vindicationism” embedded the notion in elite discourse that American prosperity and national security required that it be actively engaged in core regions of the globe.