Religious Roots of American Foreign Policy: The Origin of the Consciousness of the “Mission of America”

This article seeks to find the origin of the “mission of America”, which lies at the root of the nation’s global strategy, in a feature of Puritanism and its eschatology. At the same time, this article considers elements found in America’s global strategy that hinder co-existence and how to overcome them. Global strategy pursued by the Bush administration after 9/11, to the point of arrogance, was not based just on practical diplomatic decisions to pursue national interests. What lay behind these decisions were America’s sense of mission, an awareness that is ideological as well as religious. If we look at the state of religion in America today, it is hard to see prominent acts of criticism against the global strategy of the current administration from transcendental, self-critical American awareness. However, this consciousness has not disappeared from the American religious tradition. What is needed is an awareness once again that another religious tradition exists, and to assist this tradition from a position of empathy.