Vladimir Legoida
Executive Director of 
the Studies and research MGIMO center "Church and international relations"

Practically from the beginning of the American history the idea of liberty became a central concept for the American self-perception and served as a basic principle for the development of the democratic society. This idea is a basis of the national “civil religion” called “American dream”. It often uses religious terms but stands above the religion in this multiconfessional country. To become an American means to accept certain idea of liberty that includes “absence of foreign constraint”, “independence from the government”, “individualism”. The most of the Americans sincerely believe they are the nation chosen to bring liberal values to the rest of the world.

This thesis reflected on the US foreign policy as Monroe Doctrine proclaimed in the middle of the XIX century. As the United States were turning to a superpower the doctrine that originally had been supposed to prevent the European involvement into the New World affairs evolved to the justification of the American political and economical expansion throughout the world. In the XX century the US foreign policy-makers opposed the national moral ideals to the communism during the Cold War era. The Vietnam war was a huge disappointment for the American society mainly because its values failed to be accepted by the other nation.

The end of the Cold War was the occasion for the US leaders to show once again the invincibility of the American traditional ideals. Now the United States are considered by many politicians, politologist, historians and philosophers to be the only power capable to promote democracy and economic growth, to fight violence and injustice. Such claims prove that the critical comprehension of own exclusivity in the American foreign policy is being changed to the firm belief in the American values priority.