the.com/isolationism
The foreign policy equivalent of muting the group chat and hoping the drama resolves itself.
means A national policy of staying out of other countries' alliances, conflicts, and entanglements, focusing inward instead.
from Built from 'isolation' (Latin insula, 'island' — the idea of being cut off like land surrounded by water) plus the '-ism' suffix marking a doctrine or stance. The word crystallized in political vocabulary as a label for the stance of nations, especially used to describe a strain of American foreign policy wary of European wars and alliances in the early 20th century — though the impulse to stay off the island's shore and let the world sort itself out is far older than the term.
- irony
- Pre-WWII America, then Pearl Harbor happened anyway
- origin
- Surged after WWI disillusionment with foreign entanglements
- myth
- Never actually meant zero trade, just zero alliances
- modern form
- Tariffs and border walls, same instinct rebranded