Isolationism in American Politics: Economic Explanations for Foreign Policy Development, 1930-1950

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

This paper evaluates the political shift in American foreign policy between 1930 and 1950. The goal was to evaluate possible explanations for why the United States decided to forego its previous foreign policy of “isolationism,” or non-interventionism towards Europe, and became an internationalist, and eventually interventionist, foreign policy. It was found to be highly correlated to economic developments at the time, which gave a strong explanation for United States interest in the international realm to recover the economy following the Depression. The method of research in this paper was primarily qualitative, relying on work conducted previously by other political scientists and academics. The problem with this study was the issue of finding explanations that were related to the specific question of this paper, because there are multiple resources looking at different aspects on this topic. Overall, the data did show a relationship between the economy and the change in foreign policy.

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