American Exceptionalism and its Impact on Presidents’ Foreign Policy
Leah Achor—Political Science
Project Advisor: Dr. Frederick Neikirk
What are the different definitions and views of American
exceptionalism? Can you predict the foreign policy of an American
President based on his view of American exceptionalism?
The Concept:
The Process:
Loosely defined, American

exceptionalism is the belief that the
United States is qualitatively
different from—perhaps better than—


every other nation.

http://www.american.com/archive/2010/march/two-cheers-for-americanexceptionalism/FeaturedImage
Researched many views of American exceptionalism and created
three definitional categories: traditionalist, revisionist, and equalist.
Studied the speeches of Presidents G.W. Bush and Obama to
categorize their views of American exceptionalism.
Examined Bush and Obama’s foreign policy views to determine if
there is a link between these and their views of American
exceptionalism.
I found that although a President's view of American exceptionalism
guides his view of America in the world, it cannot predictably or
directly influence his foreign policy actions.
Application:
http://pewresearch.org/assets/datatrends/numbers/1368.gif
The Honors Programs at
If discovering politicians’ views about American
exceptionalism can help to predict their foreign
policy views, what would Romney’s presidential
foreign policy look like?
soli Deo gloria
Leah Achor
Class of 2012