Isolationism is a foreign policy strategy in which a nation announces that it has absolutely no interest in international affairs, nor in the affairs of other nations, as long as they do not affect any vital interest of its own; this implies a neutrality in most possible conflicts. The most famous example is the foreign policy of the USA during much of the 19th century and in the inter-war period of the 20th century, where isolationism as regards any part of the globe other than the western hemisphere was a corollary of the Monroe Doctrine enunciated in 1823.
In practice the USA only followed isolationism when it was in its interest, and became heavily involved in Asian affairs, as well as finding the definition of ‘western hemisphere’ extensive enough to include both Hawaii and the Philippines. Isolationism was at its most effective in the USA during the inter-war years, keeping the country out of the League of Nations and preventing it from becoming involved in the Second World War until attacked by Japan at the end of 1941. Whatever the balance of advantages to the USA may have been, the policy was disastrous for Europe, where the rise of the dictators was helped by their confidence in American neutrality.
Although isolationism is still attractive to many Americans, the Truman Doctrine of 1947, when the USA pledged to help all peoples fighting for freedom against ‘armed minorities or outside pressure’, spelled the end even to a pretence of isolationism, which would, in any case, be incompatible with its obligations under the United Nations (UN) Charter. Certainly isolationist tendencies, though still present, have not stopped presidents from the first to the second Bush administrations involving the US closely with European affairs.
In effect, of course, isolationism is practised by most small powers most of the time, and only becomes an obviously deliberate strategy where a real choice is available. When Britain was still powerful there sometimes existed a strong isolationist element under the title of ‘little Englanders’, who wished to give up imperial responsibilities and concentrate effort on protecting the direct interests of the homeland itself. Where there is an apparent choice nowadays, the complexity of international politics and the geographical spread and intermixing of alliances, particularly in a nuclear context, makes isolationism scarcely feasible. Furthermore, the increasing role of the UN, offering for the first time a real possibility of collective security, increases both the practical and moral incentives for countries to be fully engaged in world politics, as was demonstrated by the 1991 Gulf War, and by the active involvement by the European Union in Eastern European affairs, and more broadly, in world foreign policy.
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