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Book Review
Canada and the United States
| James R. Holmes. Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, Inc. 2006. Pp. 327. $29.95.
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| The widely accepted notion of Theodore Roosevelt as the embodiment of the "realist" tradition in U.S. foreign relations constitutes a serious oversimplification. True, Roosevelt possessed a sophisticated strategic outlook, upon which he acted adroitly in the interests of the United States and of a peaceful, stable world. But TR always combined realism with a large measure of idealism. He believed strongly that American statesmen should seek international justice and the betterment of the human condition. This altruistic thrust was especially apparent in Roosevelt's dealings with the Philippines and with a couple of Caribbean countries. |
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James R. Holmes, while acknowledging Roosevelt's pursuit of the national interest, grasps and emphasizes Roosevelt's foreign policy idealism. At the core of TR's diplomacy, Holmes contends, was the concept of "international police power," a concept that heretofore has received little scholarly attention. The police power idea was rooted in Roosevelt's progressive domestic policy, which, like his foreign policy, blended "humanitarian idealism and enlightened self-interest" (p. 108). The "two pillars" of the international police power—which was "at once defensive and preemptive in nature"—were "maintaining order and promoting the welfare of the people ... who found themselves under U.S. stewardship" (pp. 137, 186, 146). |
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