Let's put the relations in foreign relations.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: Worldview

THE HISTORY of the world is an undulation of aggression, suppression, and peace. Often, peace merely is the absence of overt war. Thus, we have the story of Babel, the Pax Romana, and, in the last century, the sad tales of the League of Nations and United Nations. The Pax Romana stands out as the example in which, except for taxes and a few demands of behavior, the locals largely were free to continue as they were. The other attempts at modifying the known world demanded acquiescence to a singular vision and relied (and, in the case of the UN, continues to rely) on a relative handful of nations to do the dirty work of financing the process and cleaning up the mess.

Recent decades have brought variant attempts to change the tone and thrust of the global vision. Lou Marinoff, professor of philosophy at City College in New York and, impossibly, a bestselling author of philosophy books aimed at the lay person (Plato, Not Prozac! Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems; The Middle Way: Finding Happiness in a Worm of Extremes; and Therapy for the Sane: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life), has, with others, worked for years to bring a vision of what he calls the wisdom of the "ABCs" (Aristotle, Buddha and Confucius) to political and economic problems in a variety of international forums. Years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing him, and he was as wise and patient as one would expect. I fear, though, it would try the patience of Job to get the motley crew that comprises the United Nations to view global interactions with the reason of Aristotle and the benevolent detachment of Buddha and Confucius. I doubt very much that the parties are as pure of heart as the philosopher. Marinoff is scattering pearls.

Annoying as it may be, the international community requires diligent attention. The Secretary of State is charged with being the international face and quiet arbiter of our national presence in the world community. Too often, Secretaries of State have treated the role as the ivory-tower or coat-closet arm of American might. I would suggest that recent history is sufficient to propose that foreign relations might be improved, or at least more intelligible, if we stopped treating international relations like an academic chess game, or pretended that everyone is there with a transcendent vision and a shared awareness of the value of human life. We ought, perhaps, to treat it instead as what the touchy-feely crowd asserts it is: one big family. I have no way of knowing this, but I suspect that Hillary Clinton has, as a mother and a member of a sometimes unpredictable family, some insight into this. It would explain the...