by David Fromkin

About the author: David Fromkin is author of A Peace to End All Peace.

“Isolation is no longer possible or desirable,” the President said. It was September 1901, the speaker was William McKinley and the subject of his address at the opening of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo [New York] was the role the United States should play in the dawning 20th century.

McKinley’s point was that modern technologies of transport and communications had abolished distance. It was obvious even then. So internationalism evolved into the dominant theme of American foreign policy. Today, though, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, internationalism is losing its way as we stumble from the narrow and chaotic streets of Somalia to Haiti and, possibly to the quagmire of Bosnia.

Pursue Selfish Goals