Race, Trade, and the Demise of Southern Support for Multilateralism, 1945–62
2025-10-10
abstract: Through the 1940s, Southern members of Congress strongly supported multilateralism in US foreign policy, backing the United Nations and other multilateral initiatives almost unanimously. But by the end of the 1950s, many of these members had turned against this institutional form. That shift bolstered domestic opposition to multilateralism, with lasting consequences for both US foreign policy and world order. This article assesses two complementary explanations for the change. First, changes in the Southern economy reduced the value of multilateral cooperation. Export-oriented agriculture, particularly cotton, became less important. Labor-intensive industries, especially textiles and apparel, became more sensitive to international competition. Second, multilateral rules on human rights increasingly threatened the South’s racial hierarchy. White supremacy provided material benefits to white elites through voter suppression, legal impunity, and labor-repressive agriculture—benefits similar to those they derived from trade protection or access to foreign markets. Integrating these two explanations strengthens them both.