Menchik Publishes Article on Liberal Internationalism
Jeremy Menchik, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a new journal article in Politics, Religion & Ideology, which locates President Woodrow Wilson’s worldview in his Southern Presbyterian upbringing, his admiration for other Christian idealists, and the influence of the budding movement of the Social Gospel.
The article, titled “Woodrow Wilson and the Spirit of the Liberal Internationalism,” uses the erasure of religion from the late 20th century international relations theory to unearth the missionary spirit driving the liberal internationalist project.
From the abstract:
Woodrow Wilson is among most influential presidents in U.S. foreign policy history, and the most pious. The challenge for scholars is joining Wilson’s faith and his foreign policies. What was the role of religion in Wilson’s worldview? What is the place of religion in Wilsonianism? This article uses original archival sources and a synthesis of historical research to intervene in IR theory, demonstrating that Wilsonianism is a product of Wilson’s specifically Southern Presbyterian upbringing, his admiration for other Christian idealists, and the influence of the budding movement of the Social Gospel. This finding raises a historiographic puzzle: why did late twentieth century IR scholars erase religion from theories of liberal internationalism? The article suggests Wilson’s religion has been erased as part of the broader project of desacralizing and universalizing liberal internationalism. Wilson’s worldview was a mirror for the kind of social and political order he witnessed and propagated in America, a Janus-faced spirit of universalism and exceptionalism, internationalism and parochialism, that continues to motivate the liberal internationalist project. Unearthing the Protestant origins of Wilsonianism helps us to explicate the missionary spirit driving the liberal internationalist project.
The full article can be read on Politics, Religion, & Ideology‘s website.
Jeremy Menchik is Associate Professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and faculty affiliate in Political Science and Religious Studies. His first book, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2016) explains the meaning of tolerance to the world’s largest Islamic organizations and was the co-winner of the 2017 International Studies Association award for the best book on religion and international relations. His recent research focuses on social movements, the politics of modern religious authority, and the origins of the missionary impulse. Read more about Professor Menchik on his faculty profile.