The US as a Great Power: The Long Road to the 19th-Century Acceptance of Rank

• In Event: Justice and Inequality: Democracy and Great Powers

Abstract

In contrast to the common picture of "Great Power" status as a superior position after which states thirst and to which they devote effort to attain by fair means or foul, the US in the half-century running roughly from 1865 to 1914 displayed considerable reluctance to view itself or have others view it as a power dealing on equal terms with the recognized Great Powers of the day and clearly distinguished from the majority of the members of the society of states. How it came to accept participation in what Hedley
Bull termed the "managerial role" in international society played by great powers as one of the primary mechanisms of international order can be understood through its participation in international gatherings--congresses and peace conferences--and the extended process by which it took on the role of initiator of such experiments in the collective governance of international life.

Author

• David Clinton, Baylor University