The Protestant Origins of Wilsonianism

Contemporary international relations theorists agree that President Woodrow Wilson gave birth to the American liberal internationalist project. While Wilson’s efforts to create the League of Nations failed, subsequent liberal visions for international order inevitably drew from the Wilsonian vision. Insufficiently acknowledged, however, is how much Wilson’s vision was rooted in his religion. What was the role of religion in Wilson’s worldview, and in Wilsonianism? What does that mean for the place of religion in U.S. foreign policy? Drawing on primary source material from Wilson and his contemporaries, this paper demonstrates that Wilson’s views were grounded in a liberal Protestant and Southern Presbyterian vision of democracy, American-led progress, international cooperation, economic openness, and the struggle of good against evil as a military march of slow progress with many casualties. Against the common portrayal of Wilsonianism as rooted in secular, liberal values derived from Immanuel Kant, this paper unearths the Protestant origins of Wilsonianism. By doing so, the paper sheds light on a latent theological aspect of liberal internationalism that helps to explain its missionary fervor. Additionally, by highlighting liberal internationalists’ systematic elision of religion from the history of Wilsonianism, the paper affirms the constructivist view that international relations continues to be motivated by normative political theory.