The case for "integration".

• Author: Haass, Richard N.
• Position: United States foreign policy

IN 2005 we saw the 101st anniversary of the birth, and the death, of George Kennan, widely acknowledged as the principal architect of containment, the doctrine that guided U.S. foreign policy for roughly forty years of the Cold War. Containment--in Kennan's formulation, "a commitment to countering the Soviet Union wherever it encroached upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world"--implicitly and correctly rejected two dangerous alternatives: appeasement of the Soviet and communist threat on the one hand (that would have led to a global diminution of security, freedom and prosperity) and direct confrontation on the other (all too dangerous in a nuclear era). Containment not only largely frustrated Soviet and communist expansion, it contributed to creating a context in which communism ceased to constitute either a geopolitical or ideological challenge to America. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989; the Soviet Union itself imploded two years later.

Containment could not, however, survive its own success. What is needed now is a foreign policy doctrine for the post-11/9 (November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down) and the post-9/11 world.

A guiding principle--an intellectual framework--furnishes policymakers with a compass to define strategies and determine priorities, which in turn helps shape decisions affecting long-term investments in military forces, assistance programs and intelligence and diplomatic assets. A doctrine also helps prepare the public for what commitments and sacrifices may be required--and sends signals to other governments, groups and individuals (friend and foe alike) about what the country is striving to seek or prevent in the world.

Promulgating a viable doctrine is easier said than done, however. None of the three post-Cold War presidencies has successfully articulated a comprehensive foreign policy or national security doctrine. The first attempt came from President George H. W. Bush in the aftermath of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. "Out of these troubled times ... a new world order can emerge: a new era--freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace.... A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice." Largely left unsaid was how such an order would materialize and be sustained.

The Clinton Administration flirted with various themes, most notably diplomatic engagement and democratic enlargement. These did not, however, constitute a doctrine. Engagement is one of those words that provide little in the way of meaningful policy guidance. Democratic enlargement was one element of the Clinton foreign policy, most notably in the case of NATO. But democracy promotion was not a central or consistent priority of the administration that in any event saw a considerable portion of its energies devoted to a series of largely humanitarian crises (Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo) as well as to the Middle East peace process.

The current administration has gone through two principal phases. The first began with 9/11 and took up most of Bush's first term. Attempts to ascribe a "Bush Doctrine" to the initial four years of George W. Bush's presidency come up short, however, as there was less a coherent policy than a mix of counter-terrorism, pre-emption, unilateralism and democracy promotion. (1) But counter-terrorism does not constitute an adequate foreign policy ambition for the United States. It is too narrow in scope and provides no guidance for dealing with a majority of the opportunities and challenges posed by globalization and international relations. Pre-emption (or prevention, to be more precise) is relevant to an even narrower set of circumstances and in any event is unlikely to be a regular feature of policy, given the uncertainty, risks and controversy surrounding it. Unilateralism is not viable in that most of today's pressing problems cannot be met by the United States alone, given the nature of the problems themselves and the realistic limits to American power. No single country, no matter how powerful, can contend successfully on its own with these transnational challenges. Democracy promotion is a more serious proposition, but it received at best intermittent emphasis in the initial four years of the Bush Administration.

THE SECOND term began with a more consistent foreign policy approach, one informed by intensified support for democracy. "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one", the president proclaimed in his second Inaugural Address. He continued,

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.... We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies. The case for democracy promotion begins with the principle that individual freedom is inherently desirable, but quickly goes beyond it. There is the notion of democratic peace, the argument that democracies are unlikely to go to war with one another and so make for better international citizens more generally. And there is the proposition that it is the absence of democracy in selected societies (notably throughout the Arab world and parts of the Muslim world) that is largely responsible for the alienation of so many young men and women who then turn to radicalism and terrorism.

Both of these notions open themselves to at least some dispute. Democratic...