On October 4th I attended John Mearsheimer’s talk about “The Great Delusion: Liberal Ideals and International Realities” at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. In his talk, Professor Mearsheimer argued that the United States’ foreign policy of liberal hegemony has failed. He asserts that this is due to political leaders overlooking the importance of self-determination because at the core of every nation is the belief that they should be their own sovereign state and that no country wants to be socially engineered by the United States or have their way of life changed.
While this event was largely centered around the United States’ policies and ideals, it also focused on how those ideals transformed into foreign policy and diplomacy, thus relating to international affairs. Professor Mearsheimer addressed how, since the Cold War, the United States has been practicing liberal hegemony to with the goal to remake the world in America’s image. There have been many instances since then where the United States has interfered in another country’s affairs with the intention to impose our democratic system on them. This is illiberal because a central aspect of liberalism is the idea that people cannot agree on fundamental principles, yet in these instances the United States is acting as if there is only one way to run a country and that way is liberal democracy.
Professor Mearsheimer’s talk relates to what I have learned in my Introduction to Development Studies: Global Poverty, Inequality, and the Field of Development course. In the unit that covered foreign aid, I learned that foreign aid donated by developed countries during the Cold War was used as a tool to impose their own political and military motives. This aid was largely wasted on corrupt politicians instead of being given with the intention of helping countries develop. This money transformed into, what some economists argue, a new form of colonialism in which developed countries could still assert their influence over developing countries through their aid money.
Aside from that class, I have not learned much about the United States’ recent foreign policy. In the social studies courses I have taken in the past, we were taught about what happened in the wars and conflicts the United States has fought or gotten involved in since the Cold War. However, we did not learn about their motives for doing so beyond the umbrella reason given that communism is bad and therefore the United States must take responsibility for preventing countries from adopting communism. Professor Mearsheimer’s talk struck my interest because it built upon my elementary knowledge of the conflicts the United States has gotten involved in recently.
From attending this event, I have gained a critical outlook of how the United States interferes in international issues and a desire to learn more about international diplomacy. I want to attend more speaker events at the Mershon Center to expand my knowledge of world events and be exposed to new perspectives beyond what I learn in the classroom.