From Soldier to Statesman: Ulysses S. Grant’s Military Realism in American Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT To understand the implications of the influence of the military in American foreign policy we need an understanding of the military mindset, one that goes beyond analysing parochialisms. Here the theory of military realism is used to analyse President Ulysses S. Grant’s approach to foreign affairs. Despite his reputation as a fighting general, Grant was a strategic thinker who consistently sought alternatives to force in foreign policy, in part because his military realist perspective emphasised the unpredictable nature of force as a tool of statecraft. Though at times Grant’s military realism and political inexperience were liabilities in foreign policy.