Editing Theodore Roosevelt (section)

===Foreign policy beliefs===
In the analysis by [[Henry Kissinger]], Roosevelt was the first president to develop the guideline that it was the duty of the United States to make its enormous power and potential influence felt globally. The idea of being a passive "city on the hill" model that others could look up to, he rejected. Roosevelt, trained in biology, was a [[social Darwinist]] who believed in survival of the fittest. The international world in his view was a realm of violence and conflict. The United States had all the economic and geographical potential to be the fittest nation on the globe.<ref>Henry Kissinger, ''[[Diplomacy (Kissinger book)|Diplomacy]]'' (1994, pp. 38–40).</ref> The United States had a duty to act decisively. For example, in terms of the [[Monroe Doctrine]], the United States had to prevent European incursions in the Western Hemisphere. But there was more, as he expressed in his [[Roosevelt Corollary]] to the Monroe Doctrine: the U.S. had to be the policeman of the region because unruly, corrupt smaller nations had to be controlled, and if United States did not do it, European powers would in fact intervene and develop their own base of power in the hemisphere in contravention to the [[Monroe Doctrine]].<ref>Kissinger, ''Diplomacy'', pp. 38–39</ref>

Roosevelt was a realist and a conservative.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Stephen G. |last1=Walker |first2=Mark |last2=Schafer |title=Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as cultural icons of US foreign policy |journal=[[Political Psychology]] |volume=28 |issue=6 |year=2007 |pages=747–776 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00602.x }}</ref> He deplored many of the increasingly popular idealistic liberal themes, such as were promoted by [[William Jennings Bryan]], the anti-imperialists, and [[Woodrow Wilson]]. Kissinger says he rejected the efficacy of international law. Roosevelt argued that if a country could not protect its own interests, the international community could not help very much. He ridiculed disarmament proposals that were increasingly common. He saw no likelihood of an international power capable of checking wrongdoing on a major scale. As for world government:<blockquote> I regard the Wilson–Bryan attitude of trusting to fantastic peace treaties, too impossible promises, to all kinds of scraps of paper without any backing in efficient force, as abhorrent. It is infinitely better for a nation and for the world to have the [[Frederick the Great]] and [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]] tradition as regards foreign policy than to have the Bryan or Bryan–Wilson attitude as a permanent national attitude.... A milk-and-water righteousness unbacked by force is...as wicked as and even more mischievous than force divorced from righteousness.<ref>Kissinger, ''Diplomacy'' p. 40:</ref></blockquote>

On his international outlook, Roosevelt favored [[spheres of influence]], whereby one great power would generally prevail, such as the United States in the Western Hemisphere or Great Britain in the Indian subcontinent. Japan fit that role and he approved. However, he had deep distrust of both Germany and Russia.<ref>Kissinger, pp. 40–42.</ref>