Roads to Utopia: Exceptionalism, Mission, and Principles

  • Fabian Hilfrich
Chapter

Abstract

In the preceding chapters, we have seen how most debaters based their arguments on American traditions and experiences. Instead of universal principles, the tenets of American democracy—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and American institutions—were not only the objectives that all sides claimed to guided by abroad, but also the yardstick by which they measured “the other’s” capabilities.2 The American national creed was the bedrock for the discussion of international policies. The Philippines did not matter in their own right, but in the context of how U.S. policies there expressed or contradicted American ideals.

Keywords

Foreign Policy American People World Affair American Democracy World Peace 
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Notes

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© Fabian Hilfrich 2012

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  • Fabian Hilfrich

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