Democratic Realism

A very, very fine talk by Charles Krauthammer recently:

"We like Iowa corn and New York hot dogs, and if we want Chinese or Indian or Italian, we go to the food court. We don't send the Marines for takeout. That's because we are not an imperial power. We are a commercial republic. We don't take food; we trade for it. Which makes us something unique in history, an anomaly, a hybrid: a commercial republic with overwhelming global power. A commercial republic that, by pure accident of history, has been designated custodian of the international system... That is who we are. That is where we are. Now the question is: What do we do? What is a unipolar power to do?"

What, indeed. Krauthammer examines the various doctrines and choices open to America right now, and comes to some firm conclusions. Some of them may surprise you.

He begins by examining the ways Americans think about foreign affairs. Isolationism may return in force someday, but at present both its right and left wings have become irrelevant. Liberal internationalism remains a force still, but realism grasps its fallacies and fictions - even as liberal internationalism responds with its own unanswerable counter, and points out that America cannot live by power alone and still be true to itself.

Which leaves a growing fourth movement, one with its strongest adherents in the neoliberal and neoconservative camps: Democratic Globalism. Idealistic, but not transnationalist or Wilsonian. Universalist in its outlook - but also equipped with clear tests for the commitment of American power.

Krauthammer's sketches of these various movements are worth the read all by themselves, but he is not done yet. Democratic Globalism, too, must evolve. The 2 great international challenges of the 21st century lie before us still - and the Islamist threat is not among them. Yet we must face it first, before midcentury brings these great challenges forward into their acute phase. It is then that the fruits of our policies will have ripened, to help or hinder.

Good food for thought here - a very worthwhile read.

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