Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2016

The Honor and the Burden of World Leadership: Reputation Anxiety and US Military Intervention Abroad

(Abstract)

Wang Lixin

The pursuit of honor and reputation is one of the basic motives of human behavior and an integral part of the international power struggle. In the second half of the 20th century, reputation, as a substitute for “honor,” was an important form of intangible capital and a Cold War weapon. Since the Truman Doctrine determined that America’s international role was that of the leader of “the free world,” accompanied by the responsibility of protecting US allies, the question of how the US was to carry out its responsibilities and keep its promises, thereby preserving its reputation, has been one of the main concerns of successive US governments. This concern, reinforced by the fear of Soviet expansion and the spread of Communism, triggered the US decision to contain the “spread of Communism” everywhere, leading to its large-scale military intervention in Korea and Vietnam. The result was that America “over-extended” itself and its global strategic position weakened, thus damaging rather than maintaining America’s reputation. The deepest source of American leaders’ anxiety over their country’s reputation lay in America’s postwar understanding of its national identity and world role—America as “world leader”—and the nature of the Cold War and the coming of the nuclear age aggravated this anxiety. As long as the US sees itself as “world leader,” so long will US foreign policy find it hard to throw off the influence of the reputation factor.