The Origins and Character of American Exceptionalism

Abstract

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From the Obama Doctrine to America First: the erosion of the Washington consensus on grand strategy

“…American exceptionalism stresses the uniqueness of the national character and world political role of the United States as objective truth and legitimate guideline for political action in international affairs (Gilmore, Sheets, and Rowling, 2016). 2 While never uncontested by competing discourses, it represents a dominant identity construct that is embedded in the mainstream of political rhetoric, intellectual expertise and popular culture, and thus acceptable to subsequent generations of Americans as a national Selfmaking resource (Ceaser 2012). The singularity, superiority and 'God-favored' status of the United States accordingly feature as dominant themes in political discourse, for example, in the annual State of the Union addresses given by US presidents (Gilmore 2014).…”

The U.S informal empire: US African Command (AFRICOM) expanding the US economic-frontier by discursively securitizing Africa using exceptional speech acts

“…Charles Robert Darwin was the prophet who sanctified the American mission. His "natural selection" and "categorization" of races developed an anthropology which rationalized exploitation and imperialism because non-Anglo-Saxon peoples were studied as if they lived in a primitive past or were denied coevalness viii by anthropological western scholars (Helliwell and Hindess, 2013) who were on a mission "improving lower races" (Ceaser, 2012). The prevalence of socio-political figures Akin to Darwin, Strong, and Fiske points to anthropological racism that some schools of American political thought adopted in justifying their expansionism.…”

The influence of American Exceptionalism on Latin American foreign affairs: a case study of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

“…Father John Winthrop allegedly proclaimed the uniqueness of that group of people, chosen to conquer wilderness and act as God's vessels in the creation of a society that would be an example to the world (Ceaser 2012, 5, Hilfrich 2012. However, and as previously stated, the plasticity of the concept has allowed it to perpetually enlist, and witness, the most important moments of the American History.…”