Ideology, the Open Door, and Foreign Policy

A topic ripe for reassessment by historians of U.S. foreign relations, especially given the existence of a social science literature that makes possible a modest advance, is the role of ideology in foreign policy. Frequently used but inadequately defined, the term ideology has hitherto possessed only marginal analytical value. Generally speaking, those who have sensed its importance have only vaguely defined its meaning, while those who have sought to make systematic use of the concept have underestimated its significance.1 Among the latter the Open Door scholars have achieved the most impressive results in their employment of ideology as a historical variable. Ironically, the very coherence and clarity of articulation that are the characteristic strengths of the revisionists' approach also make it easier to identify serious conceptual shortcomings in their viewpoint. Thus both the virtues and the defects of revisionism, not polemical intent, mark it as the logical foil for...