Defining U.S. National Interests: The Argument Continues

[Valin]

Strategy Page:

Austin Bay

May 4, 2016

 

In late April, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that if he were elected president, "national interest" would guide American national security policy and foreign policy.

 

Defining a "national interest" is always a challenge. Strategists and political scientists endlessly ponder the term. All interests are not equal. Theorist Hans Morgenthau argued that a nation has two types of interests, vital and secondary. If a vital interest is at stake a nation should be prepared to fight for it.

 

"Schools" of American foreign policy have emerged, such as the "Realist" and "Idealist" schools. Other schools have names suggesting stricter guidance for formulating implementing policy, such as the Isolationist, Neo-Isolationist, Cooperative Security and American Primacy schools.

 

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