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The Rosecrance model of domestic-foreign policy linkage and the politics of Imperial expansion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2009
Extract
It is probably fair to say that the work of Professor Richard Rosecrance represents the outstanding attempt of recent years to produce a general model of international relations and the making of foreign policies, based on the evidence of historical research. His book Action and “Reaction in World Politics drew inductively from the historical evolution of the international system an analysis of the processes of that system. His latest book, International Relations: Peace or War?, summarizes the historical analysis of the earlier work and elaborates on its general discussion of foreign policy making, especially by drawing upon recent theoretical work by other authors. In both these books Rosecrance tries to explain the developments of international politics in terms of the long historical perspective, to show how fundamental changes in the nature of states and the international environment have altered the nature of relationships between states. The question to be explored here is the viability of Rosecrance's model and his explanations, examined in the light of a particular historical development which he
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References
page 131 note 1. Rosecrance, Richard N., Action and Reaction in World Politics: International Systems in Perspective (Boston, 1963)Google Scholar. (Henceforth Action and Reaction).
page 131 note 2. Rosecrance, Richard N., International Relations: Peace or War? (New York, 1973)Google Scholar. (Hence forth Peace or War?)
page 132 note 1. A diagrammatic representation of Rosecrance's historical systems is given in Action and Reaction, frontpiece and endpiece. Historical developments within these systemic time periods are discussed in chapters 2–10.
page 132 note 2. Ibid. pp. 79–93.
page 133 note 1. .Ibid. pp. 236–9.
page 133 note 2. Ibid, pp. 110–13, 247–50.
page 133 note 3. Ibid, pp. 126–39, 250–4.
page 134 note 1. Ibid. pp. 142–4, 149–55, 254–7; Rosecrance's arguments on the link between imperialism and domestic political conservativism closely resemble those of Joseph Schumpeter in ‘sociology of Imperialisms’ in Imperialism and Social Classes, English ed. (Oxford, pp. 70–82)
page note 134 2. Peace or War?, op. cit. pp . 208–16.
page 134 note 3. Ibid. pp. 23–24.
page 134 note 4. Ibid. pp. 149–60.
page 134 note 5. Ibid. pp. 33–36, 182–3.
page 134 note 6. Ibid. pp. 172–3. This point is only partially correct. Rosecrance particularly counterposes the difference between domestic criticism of American policy in Vietnam and the lack of such criticism in nineteenth-century imperialistic states. Considering the level of American involvement and losses, and the lack of tangible success, the Johnson administration would have been lucky to remain in office in the nineteenth century. The leading French imperialist, Jules Ferry, was twice forced out of office because of much smaller overseas military involvements. British expansionist policies were also frequently subjected to hostile parliamentary comment, and the United States' own acquisition of the Philippines was so controversial that the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was barely ratified.
page 135 note 1. Notably James N . Rosenau and Wolfram Hanrieder.
page 135 note 2. Action and Reaction, op. cit. pp. 152–5. In Peace or War?, op. cit. pp. 150–3, Rosecrance does indicate a somewhat different view that authoritarian states may be freer of domestic constraints in making foreign policy decisions and may find it easier to undertake and terminate foreign commitments.
page 135 note 3. Cf. for example, the point of Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher that as much territory was added to the British Empire in the decades immediately before 1870 as in the period after that date; ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review, vi (1953), pp. 1–5Google Scholar.
page 136 note 1. Rosecrance acknowledges this mixture of liberalism and imperialism under the Third Republic in Action and Reaction, op. cit. pp. 152–3.
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page 139 note 1. The genesis of the movement was in the formation of the Comite de l' Afrique franfaise in 1890, probably as a result of disappointment among some imperial enthusiasts at the terms of the recent Anglo-French agreement on Africa. The ‘Colonial Group’ of the Chamber of Deputies was formed two years later. For general information on the Colonial Party, see Ganiage, op. cit. pp. 165–9; Brunschwig, op. cit. chap. 8; Girardet, op. cit. pp . 67–75 and Sieberg (cited infra), pp. 91–102.
page 139 note 2. The most thorough recent study of Etienne is Sieberg, Herward, Eugene Etienne und die franzÖsische Kolonialpolitik, 1887–1904 (Cologne, 1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, though the author emphasizes the many gaps in documentary material available on this important figure.
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page 139 note 4. Ganiage, op. cit. pp . 155–9.
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page 140 note 4. Hobson, John A., Imperialism: A Study (London, 1938), pp. 10–13, 46–61, 113–52, 191–222, Rosecrance's arguments also closely parallel some of Hobson's views on this subject.Google Scholar
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page 141 note 2. Blake, op. cit. pp. 60–95, 123–30. However, Rosecrance himself rejects such an interpretation of Palmerston's behaviour. Instead, he seeks to reconcile Palmerstonian interventionism with political liberalism; Action and Reaction, op. cit. pp . 113–15.
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page 142 note 2. Rosecrance, Action and Reaction, op. cit. p. 153.
page 142 note 3. Cf. esp. the discussion by Semmel, op. cit. pp. 25–28 and A. F. Madden in CHBE, op. cit. PP. 339–53
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page 145 note 1. In Peace or War?, op. cit. chap. 12, Rosecrance takes some pains to explain why all cases of domestic upheaval have not wrought corresponding aggressive or adventurous developments in national foreign policies.
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