Explanatory Analysis Of Joseph Parent's Uniting States: Voluntary United

The political philosopher Isaiah Berlin classified thinkers into two general types: hedgehogs, who perceive the world through a single ideological lens, and foxes, who derive understanding from diverse experiences and ideas. Joseph Parent’s book, Uniting States: Voluntary Union in World Politics, suggests that he is a paradigmatic hedgehog. Starting with his acknowledgement of influence from Realist luminaries including Robert Art, James Fearon, Robert Jervis, John Mearsheimer, Steve Walt, and Ken Waltz, Parent provides his first clue to the type of explanatory analysis he will undertake. The first paragraph in Chapter 1 then implies that security and military action causes political outcomes, which makes clear Parent’s Realist perspective that views unification as a predominantly threat-driven process. While very interesting and commendable for his use of historical case studies to explore political …show more content…
He does not, however, include Alexander Hamilton’s assessment contained within Federalist #8, which specifically addressed national defense. Hamilton wrote, “Europe is at a great distance from us. Her colonies in our vicinity will be likely to continue too much disproportioned in strength to be able to give us any dangerous annoyance. Extensive military establishments cannot, in this position, be necessary to our security. But if we should be disunited, and the integral parts should either remain separated, or, which is most probable, should be thrown together into two or three confederacies, we should be, in a short course of time, in the predicament of the continental powers of Europe --our liberties would be a prey to the means of defending ourselves against the ambition and jealousy of each other.” This makes it clear that internal, not external, threats were the main security concern of the new