Methodological Principles of American Foreign Policy Traditions Study: Intellectual History Opportunities

Abstract

In the article, the author analyzed methods and approaches of intellectual history basing on the evolution of American foreign policy thought study. The research was done from its origins in the religious myths of the first Puritan colonists, evolution into the concepts of the U.S. special place and role in the world, to formalization into political doctrines and practical implementation. The relevance of the topic is due to modern transformations in the world political environment and changes in the balance of power in the international arena. It creates challenges for modern leading countries. The issue is especially acute for the United States because of the contestation of their superpower status by new regional leaders. The methodological approaches of such intellectual historians as A. Lovejoy, K. Skinner, J. Pocock, P. Gordon, R. Chartier were considered. The research determined opportunities of interaction between the methods of contextual analysis, put forward by the Cambridge School, and other approaches to the text reading. Based on the practical application of these methods in the process of studying the foreign policy tradition of the United States, the following problems were emphasized: myth-making upon an attempt to trace the continuity of political ideas and identify their authorship, anachronisms, tendencies to define «unit-ideas» in history without reference to the context. An equally problematic issue is the possibility to «reconstruct» the process of forming an ideological tradition at all. It was figured out how certain ideological constructs were borrowed by American political leaders and turned into concepts that form the core of the modern U.S. political ideology. Attention is focused on how, in the process of evolution, political concepts acquired recognition, propagation, and established in the political language of the country. It was concluded that this happened not only due to the ideological content inherent in earlier variations of concepts but also through new interpretations, during which the tradition was expanded with new discourses. An idea repeater thus plays a significant role – its interpretations fill the country's ideological apparatus, adapt ideologemes to the appropriate political context. This approach perfectly illustrates the process of the United States world's place finding, which formed the national ethos of Americans and still shapes the priorities of U.S. foreign policy.