There are growing concerns that the Republican Party’s MAGA wing wants to return to isolationism, defined as “a national policy of avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries.”
Isolationist tendencies were prudent when George Washington warned against entangling alliances. And isolationism was widely embraced at the beginning of both World War I and II. But there are several reasons why U.S. isolationism isn’t an option in today’s interconnected world.
It’s not just states, there’s territories. Isolationist thinking tends to focus on the 48 mainland states and how far removed the U.S. is from the frequent disputes and saber-rattling in Europe, Africa and Asia. But that’s too narrow a view of the United States.
There’s Alaska, which at its closest point is only 53 miles from Russia. And Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Plus, there are 16 U.S. territories, with five of them populated with U.S. citizens — two (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) in the Caribbean and three (American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianna Islands) in the Pacific. The other 11 territories are also in the Caribbean and Pacific and are considered uninhabited, but still part of the United States.
Then there are joint security agreements, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and there are........