Martin Sieff — Woodrow Wilson Goes to Europe: One Hundred Years of Delusional American Madness

We are now in the dubious position of “celebrating” – if that is the word – the 100th anniversary of US President Woodrow Wilson’s departure on December 4, 1918 on the liner SS George Washington for the Versailles Peace Conference where he was confident he would dictate his brilliant solutions that would end war in the world for all time.

Historians and psychiatrists – including Dr. Sigmund Freud himself who co-authored a book on Wilson – have endlessly debated whether Wilson was sane and just deluded or raving mad. Freud clearly inclined to the latter view. And he had ample evidence to support him. What is most alarming is that, as Henry Kissinger – significantly not born an American at all – points out, all US presidents either share Wilson’s ridiculous messianic fantasies or feel they must pretend to....

Wilson is the father of liberal internationalism in international relations, and it's progeny, liberal interventionism and US global hegemony because American exceptionalism. I am not sure that delusion madness is the only factor, although it is a chief factor. The other chief factor is tying this madness to neo-imperialism and neocolonialism as concomitants of capitalism American-style.

Liberal internationalism is also called liberal idealism in foreign policy, and both liberal internationalism and liberal idealism are called Wilsonianism.

Wilsonianism is opposed by foreign policy realism, which sometimes equated with Realpolitik, although foreign policy realism is a broader category than Realpolitik. Realism focuses on national interest as the criterion in foreign policy and international relations. It is conservative in the political tradition of Thomas Hobbes and Niccolò Machiavelli. Its chief proponent recently is Henry Kissinger. Of course, in speaking of "national interest" the question arises over exactly whose interests, since nationals are not homogenous.

Martin Sieff offers an appraisal of the insanity of some US Wilsonian presidents.

Strategic Culture Foundation
Woodrow Wilson Goes to Europe: One Hundred Years of Delusional American Madness

Martin Sieff, senior fellow of the American University in Moscow, former chief foreign correspondent of The Washington Times, and former managing editor, international affairs, for United Press International

James J. Zogby — The Shame and Dangers of Ignoring Arab Opinion and Rights

Backgrounder on how colonialism led to the present situation in the Middle East post WWI. Woodrow Wilson saw it coming but could not stop implementation of the Balfour declaration.

LobeLog
The Shame and Dangers of Ignoring Arab Opinion and Rights
James J. Zogby | President of the Arab American Institute

Akhilesh Pillalamarri — The Bitter Fruits of Wilsonianism

Theodore Roosevelt's nationalist realism opposed to Woodrow Wilson's internationalist idealism. Historical backgrounder.

The American Conservative
The Bitter Fruits of Wilsonianism

Akhilesh Pillalamarri, editorial assistant at The American Conservative

Tony Smith — Is Liberal Internationalism Dead?

History lesson. Woodrow Wilson versus Donald Trump.

Does the global progress depend on American leadership?

Project Syndicate
Is Liberal Internationalism Dead?
Tony Smith, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Tufts University

See also

But if the revolutionaries take their war against the state too far, they face a different problem, because members of the old establishment are the only people who know enough about specific government programs to get anything done. Ultimately, the revolutionaries must try to strike a balance between betraying their supporters’ radical wishes and escalating their conflict with the state to the point that no other policy goals can be achieved.

This is the crux of the problem. The modern bureaucratic state arose in Prussia at the time that Germany was being unified into a nation the late 19th century.

The problem with the bureaucratic state is that it is highly effective and efficient in comparison with other types of state organization, but it is also the basis for a shadow government that is the actual government that persists across changes in political power.

The first question is whether Trump-Bannon can "deconstruct the administrative state." The second what will replace it and how effective and efficient it will be in comparison.

Trump’s Revolutionary Dilemma
Harold James | Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation