WI: American Isolationism Until Present Day

America was never isolationist in terms of economics. The United States would trade with anyone in the world. However, there was a trend of being uninvolved in foreign affairs whenever possible. The Second War World transformed that, and the United States emerged as the leader of the Western "Free World", with military, political and economic interest and involvement in those nations and across the world. Since the end of the Cold War, it emerged as the hegemonic power of the entire world.

Generally, the concept of America as an isolationist nation is used in reference to an alternate WW2. However, I want to focus on the general concept of an America that is isolationist because it would be such an extreme contrast to the world as it came to stand in the latter 20th century and into the present day. Therefore, this is a discussion regardless of a "Nazi Victory" scenario should that be an issue, and I would frankly rather focus on a Second World War that the Axis loses regardless. I believe that would be a red herring distraction. Therefore, what if the United States had remained an isolationist nation up until the present day.
 
. . . rather focus on a Second World War that the Axis loses regardless. . .
Okay, the Soviets win in 1947, it's bloody, and they are harsh occupiers. It's a full generation before Germany even starts getting back on their feet as a modern economy and major economic power.

The Soviets are more powerful. It's a much more equal cold war, maybe they're even more powerful, which they were no where close to being OTL. Even the modest amount of loosening up we had under Khrushchev may be slower in coming.

The silver lining? In a more equal cold war, maybe more room for third world countries to do some kind of nonaligned movement. Or one of my personal favorites, a developing economy kind of gets the right mix, not between socialism and capitalism, but between the informal economy and the formal cash economy.

To me, when a timeline has a dark and gloomy start, something good is the tricky turnaround which can make for an interesting ATL. And the mirror image is a seemingly positive starting point but something negative develops. Of course, these aren't the only game in town, but I think they are two good tools in the toolkit.
 
America was never isolationist in terms of economics. The United States would trade with anyone in the world. However, there was a trend of being uninvolved in foreign affairs whenever possible. ...

One of the problems the isolationists had was a lack of answer when foreign powers shut US merchants out of free trade. The Barbary States enforcement of heavy 'trading fees' on US flagged merchant ships threatened a significant economic loss. Previous the US had gotten 'free' protection by European suppresion of the Barbary state, but the Napoleonic wars ended that. A similar thing occured with British interference with US trade. In the latter 19th Century European colonial powers came nosing about Latin America & their efforts to take control of assorted states threatened US trade in the region. That was the basis of the early 20th Century Banana Wars.

The US economy has always been heavily dependant on foreign trade. Failures to recognize this at critical moments have resulted in negative economic consequences.
 
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