Abstract

American historical and cultural traditions shaped American foreign properties, the formation of the United States unique diplomatic style. The idea of American exceptionalism to Americans in dealing with international relations and foreign affairs have a strong moral superiority, give the U.S. a strong idealistic diplomacy color; while exceptionalism implicit self-righteousness, arrogance and hypocrisy also stimulate the U.S. interventionist diplomacy, often leading to failure of its diplomatic, but also to the international community and other countries has brought disaster. This paper is aimed to explore how American self-image, namely American exceptionalism, affected American foreign policy and shaped the American national style of approaching foreign affairs. The author argues that American exceptionalim endowed the US with a strong sense of moral superiority in managing the international affairs, fostered the idealist impulse in American diplomacy. On the other hand, the self-assertion, arrogance and hypocrisy implied in American exceptionalism stimulated the American interventionism, resulted in the failure of American foreign policy and brought about disasters to international society and other nations