American Foreign Policy: Victory of Liberal Internationalism

The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast

Hillsdale College

Courses, Society & Culture, Education, History, Government

4.6 • 621 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

On this episode of The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, Jeremiah and Juan discuss the legacy of World War Two before introducing Michael Anton.

We often treat foreign policy as a mystery that can only be understood by an enlightened few who have committed their lives to understanding the complexities of international life. This view is dangerous because it encourages citizens to ignore a critical aspect of American political life that it’s our duty to understand. And it’s false because the basics of foreign policy are commonsense and a joy to learn. For the Founders, the basic premise of foreign policy is simple—we must make every decision with a view towards securing the equal, natural rights of American citizens. This understanding requires that America’s leaders remain accountable to the people, and it places essential limits on our interventions abroad. Yet, for over a century, this traditional understanding of American foreign policy has been challenged by new and more ambitious doctrines that argue for increased American involvement and leadership abroad.

America was officially neutral during the first two years of World War Two, but in many important ways our “neutrality” violated the nonintervention principles of the American Founders. The attack on Pearl Harbor led Americans to accept war. And with the rising Soviet threat at the end of the War, American public opinion accepted interventionist policies.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I'm Jeremiah Regan, and I'm Juan Davalos. We are back with American Foreign Policy Lecture Number 5, Victory of Liberal Internationalism.
0:19.2	This is a particularly interesting lecture to me because anytime you
0:23.7	study history, one of the most difficult things to do is to understand the context of something.
0:30.2	And when we look at World War II, I think that is just such a big event in world history
0:36.5	that we have a tendency to gloss over that context.
0:41.1	And so, you know, one of the things that we think, or at least a very superficial view of World War II,
0:47.1	is that we were attacked in Pearl Harbor, and that's why we joined the war.
0:52.2	And I think Anton begins the lecture laying out a context to that
0:58.0	and, you know, looking at ourselves a little bit on what are the things that we did that were
1:03.5	actually a little belligerent in the world in the way that America acted that led to a series of
1:10.3	events that ended us getting involved in the war.
1:13.4	In the old view, the founding view of foreign policy, things like embargoes, things like supplying
1:18.5	money or material and especially weapons to belligerents in a war were considered act of wars.
1:24.8	But in the newer foreign policy view that came in with the progressives,
1:28.9	those were not considered to be acts of war. They were considered to be acts of humanitarian aid or
1:34.5	such like, and we see that today still. The causes of World War II are very interesting,
1:40.2	and as Juan said, Professor Anton helps us understand what went into the things that happened before
1:45.1	we were attacked. He also helps us understand what came from the war, and FDR gives us an idea of what
1:51.5	he was aiming for in his 1941 speech, The Four Freedoms. I'll read an excerpt of that, and we'll see
1:57.1	how the New Deal for Americans in FDR's mind is going to be applied to the whole world.
2:03.3	We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. FDR begins.
2:08.2	The first is freedom of speech and expression.
	...

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