The Change from 'Could' to 'Should':
KECSKEMETI, PAUL
WRITERS and WRITING The Change From 'Could' to 'Should' America and the World of Our Time. By Jules Davids. Random House. 597 pp. $7.50. Reviewed by Paul Kecskemeti Philosopher and...
...But why did America turn isolationist...
...It is in this spirit that Jules Davids presents the record of American foreign policy in the 20th century in America and the World of Our Time...
...This reflected the American way of looking at international politics...
...The grandeur and nobility of the conception is beyond doubt...
...All the above judgments contain a good deal of truth...
...The dilemma which confronted the United States in the years before World War II lay in the fact that the American people were unwilling to accept fully the implications of these responsibilities...
...Since World War I, the prime consideration has been what they should or should not do...
...True, many formerly dependent peoples gained independence, but some lost it again without redress...
...It is natural for Americans to blame the unsatisfactory working of the new system on the greed, irrationality and indolence of peoples and politicians...
...The dramatic entry of the United States on the world stage during World War I changed both the form and substance of the relations among states...
...Violence, far from disappearing, reached new heights after the establishment of the new international order...
...The aftermath of World War I was not a very propitious time for setting up a new world order based on non-violence and respect for well-defined rights...
...Because, says Davids, the various powers insisted upon promoting selfish national interests at the Peace Conference, thus making Wilson's idealism appear hollow and false...
...Davids gives a clear and vivid picture of American foreign policy during the last 60 years, but he never comes to grips with the basic problem: the unsatisfactory working of the grand design of using international organization to take strife and violence out of the relations among powers...
...The merits of the new principles of international politics cannot be judged solely on the basis of what happened to them in these troubled times, although one may question the wisdom of trying to make them work in such a maximally inhospitable environment...
...Yet it is possible to push the analysis a step farther...
...Contributor to "Partisan Review" In A SENSE, the 20th century may be called the "American century" in international politics...
...And during the postwar era, "both the United States and the Soviet Union were basicallv concerned with protecting and advancing their interests...
...How can we account for the disappointing outcome of this noble experiment in 20th century international politics...
...These ideals as such are not peculiar to American thinking—they have been propagated by various European schools of thought since the 18th century—but they did come to dominate international politics largely under American impulsion...
...The vicissitudes of the world in the 20th century were the vicissitudes of this conception...
...Even under the most favorable conditions, could one hope to regulate the international political process by defining what is and is not permissible among states, and taking punitive action against wrongdoers on behalf of the international community...
...The political process does not lend itself well to codification and to the impartial administration of law...
...It was congenial to America to define international political issues in terms of adhesion to, or departure from, a code of inter-power behavior, based upon two cardinal principles: (1) the inviolacy of the independence and integrity of all peoples, weak and strong: (2) the renunciation of violence...
...The trouble was that they were not applied...
...Above all, even during peaceful stretches, life under the new dispensation has lacked precisely that feeling of tranquillity and security which one would expect from the prevalence of a universal order based upon law...
...there was, instead, either unchecked aggression or the division of the world into equal, warring camps...
...When FDR called upon all countries to put aside "all thoughts of domination, of selfish coalitions, of balances of power . . . none of the great powers was prepared to follow the President's advice...
...In fact, there had been much more of this feeling of tranquillity and security in the world during the preceding era of power politics when the nations paid no lip service to ideals of non-violence and a rule of law governing all international relations...
...Things did not get better as time went on...
...The new principles were correct in themselves...
...During the war, "cooperation was sought insofar as it would further national interests...
...Reviewed by Paul Kecskemeti Philosopher and essayist...
...Too much of the old power politics survived, and to make things worse some newfangled varieties also emerged...
...He rightly notes the lack of cooperation among the members of the two universal leagues, their selfishness and indecision, but fails to pay enough attention to the inherent flaws of the grand design itself...
...The United States set the tone of 20th century world politics by initiating the establishment of a universal organization that would inhibit violence and ensure respect for the welldefined rights of all states both by moral suasion and by taking punitive action, if necessary, on behalf of the world community...
...Yet the record shows that the new style of politics did not result in the advent of a lawful, orderly, non-violent world...
...International wrongdoers were not effectively isolated and brought to dock by an aroused, unanimous world community...
...Some keen political thinkers, George Kennan for example, have called attention to the inherent implausibility of the idea...
...Previously, power had been acknowledged as the chief regulator of international politics: Policy makers tended to define political issues in terms of what the various powers could or could not do...
...Since World War II, Davids notes a general retreat from Wilsonian and Rooseveltian idealism...
...thus "the conflict between the two powers narrowed down to a struggle for domination in Europe and Asia...
...The natural defenders of the new principles of international morality, on the other hand, either neglected their task or backslid into power politics...
...The change of America's status increased its responsibilities in world leadership...
...The spirit of power politics reasserted itself...
...in fact, they alone could provide a foundation for a satisfactory international order...
...As to morality, one can reject the errors of Machiavellianism and recognize the fundamental importance of the moral dimension in politics, and yet hold that a moralizing approach to political issues often compounds the evils of power politics instead of overcoming them...
...One factor he suggests as responsible for the sorry state of the world is American isolationism...
Vol. 44 • February 1961 • No. 9
