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Wilson's Wilsonianism: An Aborted Experiment

Woodrow Wilson's effort to create and promote a League of Nations at the close of World War I is often seen as a template for the interventionist foreign policies of his mid- and late-twentieth century successors in office, as well as the so-called liberal internationalist world order that emerged after World War II. Trygve Throntveit argues that this view is mistaken. The League as Wilson designed and envisioned it embodied a more egalitarian, cooperative, and adaptable--and thus more practical--version of "Wilsonianism" than did the comparatively hierarchical and adversarial UN architecture established under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Recovering its origins in philosophical pragmatism and progressive social thought, Throntveit argues that Wilson's Wilsonianism represents an aborted experiment in global governance, one that can prompt disturbing yet fruitful questions about a diplomatic tradition and international regime that many today are trying to reinforce.

Date & Time

Thursday
Nov. 9, 2017
10:00am – 11:30am ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Image removed.Woodrow Wilson's effort to create and promote a League of Nations at the close of World War I is often seen as a template for the interventionist foreign policies of his mid- and late-twentieth century successors in office, as well as the so-called liberal internationalist world order that emerged after World War II. Trygve Throntveit argues that this view is mistaken. The League as Wilson designed and envisioned it embodied a more egalitarian, cooperative, and adaptable--and thus more practical--version of "Wilsonianism" than did the comparatively hierarchical and adversarial UN architecture established under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Recovering its origins in philosophical pragmatism and progressive social thought, Throntveit argues that Wilson's Wilsonianism represents an aborted experiment in global governance, one that can prompt disturbing yet fruitful questions about a diplomatic tradition and international regime that many today are trying to reinforce.  

Trygve Throntveit is Dean’s Fellow for Civic Studies at the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development. He is the author of William James and the Quest for an Ethical Republic.

John Milton Cooper (Commentator) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and former Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar. He is the author of Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009).

Christian Ostermann (Moderator) Director, History and Public Policy Program, Wilson Center.


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History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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