Further to this item, Fred Kaplan considers the tension between interests and ideals in U.S. foreign policy. He criticizes what he calls the “appealing but empty syllogism” of the George W. Bush administration’s Freedom Agenda:
Tyranny sires terrorism; terrorism threatens our security; therefore, promoting democracy enhances our security; hence, our interests and our ideals are one. The problem was that terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy, and democracy is not necessarily a cure for it in any case.
He suggests that the Obama administration “seems to be aware of the tension between interests and ideals without letting it paralyze policymaking by practicing statecraft, a term that implies “a meshing of interests and ideals with reality while navigating the shoals of a dangerous world.”
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