Principle and Prudence in American Foreign Policy.

• Author: Abrahamson, James L.

PRINCIPLE AND PRUDENCE IN AMERICAN FOREIGH POLICY

By Macubin Thomas Owens, editor of Orbis and Senior Fellow Foreign Policy Research Institute

http://www.fpri.org/articles/2014/01/principle-and-prudence-american-foreign-policy

Any reader unwilling to consider that U.S. foreign policy may be in serious disarray will likely wish to skip this assessment by Naval War College Professor Owens, who brings impressive credentials to the subject (see header). His first paragraph sketches the extent of the current Administration's shortcomings, as Owens sees them, and his second begins a speculation about the causes of its failures.

Readers should bear in mind that this is an article--not a book-length treatment supported by extensive citations. Even readers who are less harsh and sweeping in their judgments may nevertheless benefit from considering Owens' claims, which are largely based on material readily available in the national media.

Largely putting aside the possibility that the Administration's shortcomings are due to "indifference" or "incompetence," Owens traces the problems to what he calls "liberal internationalism," which assumes that nations "tend towards cooperation rather than indifference," that their goals naturally "transcend power and security," and that non-state actors such as the United Nations have an "important role."

He then calls for a return to what he considers "prudent American realism." To that end, statesmen must have a clear understanding of the...