Isolationism
Isolationism is a foreign policy in which a nation refrains from making alliances or engaging actively in international affairs. Isolationism in general is a national foreign policy of detachment from other nations, as opposed to interventionism. Most often it refers to the foreign policy of the United States of America from the formation of the Monroe Doctrine to about World War II. During this time, U.S. policymakers refrained from actively engaging in the affairs of other major powers, particularly those in Europe, to the point that U.S. entry into both World Wars occurred long after each war began. However, because the United States had been actively interventionist in the affairs of its Latin American neighbors during this period, the term "isolationist" is somewhat misleading.
Following World War II, American policymakers took an active interest in global foreign affairs, becoming heavily interventionist in parts of the world outside of its traditional involvement in the Western Hemisphere.
The isolationist policy of the United States has been widely criticized by other countries such as France and Germany, while an interventionist policy by the United States has also been criticized particularly by highly populated Muslim countries such as those in the Middle East.
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Many historians today believe that the view of the U.S. as isolationist is exaggerated. There is a long list of treaties and agreements signed with powers around the world. The United States also had some of the world's most extensive global economic ties long before the Second World War.Today's principal isolationists come from the anti-war left and the paleoconservative right. Some of the more prominent isolationist organs on the right include Patrick Buchanan's magazine, The American Conservative; Chronicles magazine; the quarterly Modern Age; and books published by the Independent Institute and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI Books).