The role of the United States in the world is changing. Military troops in Iraq are heading home and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is underway. The American public is also war-weary after a decade of foreign wars and sentiments of isolationism are circulating. What future role the US will take in the world is poised to become a central question in the upcoming presidential election in 2012.
In the report The US Presidential Election: Isolationism in Advance? historian Anders Edwardsson discusses how the US has periodically shielded itself from the outside world. The report outlines a number of historical episodes and attempts to forecast the likelihood of an isolationist America in the future.