American Exceptionalism and U.S. Grand Strategy

Jake Sullivan, a former Obama-administration official who advised Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, has spent the last two years contemplating the future of the Democratic party. He’s authored two articles, one in Democracy and another in The Atlantic, articulating the principles he says should inform the domestic and foreign-policy agendas of the next Democratic president. Both are worth reading, but I was drawn to the Atlantic essay on foreign policy. It’s there that Sullivan argues that Democrats should embrace the concept of American exceptionalism. 

It’s an idea criticized by elements of both Left and Right. These critics say that America isn’t so special after all, and that American exceptionalism acts as cover for imperialist wars. Sullivan replies that they don’t grasp the meaning of American exceptionalism. “The idea is not that the United States is intrinsically better than other countries,” Sullivan writes, “but rather this: Despite its flaws, America possesses distinctive attributes that can be put to work to advance both the national interest and the larger common interest.”

He’ll get no argument from me there. But what are these “distinctive attributes”? According to Sullivan, they include “positive-sum thinking,” “a can-do spirit,” a “willingness to wield power in all forms,” and “establishing a state based on ideas.” The first three qualities seem to me to be widespread throughout the globe — Russia, for example, seems all too willing to use power. It’s the last attribute, “establishing a state based on ideas,” that is most distinctly American.