Wilsonian Doctrine

Wilsonian Doctrine is a direct reflection of early 20th century Progressive idealism invading the traditional American ideal of non-interventionist foreign policy. Although non-intervention is not reflected in the actual actions of the United States during the 19th century, it is still an overarching, albeit impotent goal of Middle-American and non-Eastern Elite political ideology. Eastern Elites during the early 20th century, with their strong Anglophile tendencies and receptiveness toward Progressive ideals, found an avenue for the projection of these ideals after the First World War. Germany, being an autocratic power and steeped in Prussian militarism and discipline, was a natural enemy of Eastern American ideologues as a force to be stomped …show more content…
The first is the concept of national leader’s belief system, and how a leader’s worldview can shape presidential action. In James Barber’s assessment, “a President’s belief system influences both his diagnosis of situations and the way in which he responds to them.” The idea of belief systems of a national leader influencing the leader’s actions as chief executive comes from the realm of political cognitive psychology. In this way, a president’s “cognitive style...influences the way in which he attempts to provide for his cognitive and emotional needs as a decision maker.” Ideology, as well as operational codes and cognitive political maps are what are underneath the umbrella of “belief system”. The ideological underpinnings of a person's worldview will necessarily influence and sometimes cloud the decision making of a national leader, and will naturally try to fulfill the ideological goals of that person or group that that person is representing. In parallel to the operational codes and political maps of the leader’s cognitive style, and the ideology of the leader, this “belief system” will serve as a basic template through which his actions will derive their …show more content…
The theory first formulated by Irving Janis was first developed in 1982 and built on in later works. The key thesis of the groupthink model is that “the existence of certain antecedent conditions within groups of decision-makers result in ineffective decision-making processes, which in turn are linked to poor policy outcomes.” With the establishment of group norms and styles of leadership, these antecedents create precedents through which groups can conceptually fall into groupthink. This theory, as well as that of cognitive belief systems of national leaders, I will use to understand the contextual and formative circumstances that will lead to the American entry into the first world