"No nation now sets forth to despoil another upon the avowed ground that it desires the spoils"
About this Quote
Root’s line is the kind of polite indictment only a lawyer-statesman could deliver: a claim about modern diplomacy that doubles as an accusation that everyone is lying. “Avowed” is the lever word. He’s not praising a more peaceful world; he’s noting that brute appetite has learned to dress itself in respectable language. Nations still “despoil,” but they’ve stopped saying the quiet part out loud.
The specific intent is to expose how conquest survives by changing its costume. By Root’s era, open imperial swagger was becoming harder to sell to domestic publics and to an emerging international audience. So the rationale shifts: annexations become “protectorates,” occupation becomes “stabilization,” economic extraction becomes “development.” Root anticipates the modern playbook where power insists it is reluctant, defensive, or morally obligated - anything but hungry.
The subtext is that hypocrisy isn’t a bug; it’s a feature of a world inching toward rules. The need to invent noble pretexts signals that “spoils” are no longer an acceptable argument, even for those most eager to collect them. That’s a backhanded compliment to international norms - and a warning about their limits. If legitimacy is the currency, then propaganda becomes a form of procurement.
Context matters: Root was a major architect of American internationalism (Nobel Peace Prize, The Hague advocacy), speaking from the high ground of law while the U.S. itself was navigating empire after 1898. The line reads as both critique and confession: a reminder that the modern age doesn’t end predation; it just forces it to hire better counsel.
The specific intent is to expose how conquest survives by changing its costume. By Root’s era, open imperial swagger was becoming harder to sell to domestic publics and to an emerging international audience. So the rationale shifts: annexations become “protectorates,” occupation becomes “stabilization,” economic extraction becomes “development.” Root anticipates the modern playbook where power insists it is reluctant, defensive, or morally obligated - anything but hungry.
The subtext is that hypocrisy isn’t a bug; it’s a feature of a world inching toward rules. The need to invent noble pretexts signals that “spoils” are no longer an acceptable argument, even for those most eager to collect them. That’s a backhanded compliment to international norms - and a warning about their limits. If legitimacy is the currency, then propaganda becomes a form of procurement.
Context matters: Root was a major architect of American internationalism (Nobel Peace Prize, The Hague advocacy), speaking from the high ground of law while the U.S. itself was navigating empire after 1898. The line reads as both critique and confession: a reminder that the modern age doesn’t end predation; it just forces it to hire better counsel.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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