{"id":7125,"date":"2014-03-19T10:25:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T17:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7125"},"modified":"2014-03-19T10:25:34","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T17:25:34","slug":"the-incoherence-of-western-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-incoherence-of-western-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Incoherence of Western Foreign Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The crisis in Ukraine is just the latest in a long series of foreign policy failures brought about by the incoherence in our thinking about foreign relations. On the one hand, we have championed ethnic-national self-determination as the highest international good, while on the other we have assumed that all these various nations and peoples share the same ideals, principles, and goods, and so can comprise a transnational order that will eliminate war and conflict and create peace and prosperity. Over a hundred years of history reveal these ideals not just to be incompatible, but also to foment and worsen inter-state violence.<\/p>\n

To mean anything, ethnic-nationalist particularism must embody profound differences among nations, including languages, customs, mores, religions, ideals, and values. The identity of a people is defined by these differences, and that identity in turn creates interests and aims that necessarily clash with those of other peoples. To take one particularly important example, different countries have different attitudes about the legitimacy of using violence to achieve their goals. Russia under Vladimir Putin obviously sees no problem with using force or the threat of force to protect its interests in Moldova, Georgia, and now Crimea and Ukraine. The Muslim Middle East is rich with examples of the acceptability of violence, whether against external or internal enemies, in protecting a nation\u2019s or a regime\u2019s power and privilege. The brutal civil war in Syria is the obvious current example. Complaints about this brutality, moreover, on the part of victims usually are based on who is using violence, not the universal principle that violence is wrong. The same clerical revolutionaries in Iran who decried the brutality of the Shah\u2019s secret police have had no problem using even worse brutality once they were in power, killing more Iranians in one year than the Savak did in 20. Violence, brutality, and torture are all fine depending on who the perpetrators are, and who the victims.<\/p>\n

Idealistic internationalism, on the other hand, must pretend that these practices which conflict with Western norms are aberrations, remnants of a less enlightened mentality that has not yet changed and progressed to embracing the superior values of the West. No reasonable human, we assume, could approve of violence, revenge, religious triumphalism, or the lust for greater power and influence at the expense of other countries, when in our calculation pursuing such aims comes with great risks and costs. After all, there is a global \u201charmony of interests,\u201d as they said in the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, that include freedom, respect for human rights, peace, and prosperity, and these preferences have been enshrined in international law, institutions, and treaties that will achieve those boons for everybody. Many Westerners who believe in this sort of idealistic internationalism point to the participation of so many countries in organizations like the United Nations, or in treaties that proscribe land mines, forbid nuclear proliferation, or promote human rights, as proof of this \u201charmony of interests\u201d and a universal human nature more important than nationalist or ethnic identity. But that participation in the main is a consequence of the West\u2019s domination of the globe, not of adherence to universal principles. Just as most global leaders wear Western suits and ties, most countries go along with these Western ideals, even as they use such institutions and aims to promote their own national interests.<\/p>\n

Hence the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of the international order. Sovereign nations pursue their particular interests, which necessarily conflict with those of others, using the international order when they find it useful to do so, and ignoring it when they don\u2019t. That\u2019s what it means to be \u201csovereign.\u201d Thus Russia has responded to the U.S. and E.U.\u2019s warnings of sanctions by threatening to suspend compliance with the international inspections called for under the START treaty with the U.S., and the Vienna Document binding on the member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But even before the current crisis, Russia has been serially cheating on arms-reduction treaties. North Korea, Iran, and the Palestinian Arabs have all played the same game. To paraphrase Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan\u2019s comments about democracy, internationalism is like a train. You take it where you have to go and then you get off.<\/p>\n

The long history of the failure of international diplomacy and institutions to prevent devastating wars and other brutal conflicts should have long discredited this faith in internationalism and its utopian ideals\u2019 ability to trump the zero-sum interests and conflicting identities of nations. If sovereign nations have the right to determine their own destinies because they are essentially different from other nations, then we must accept that they will have their own interests, no matter how irrational we may think them, that conflict with those other countries. An international order that takes one civilization\u2019s ideals and principles as the standard for the whole world will clash with those different ideals and principles, and in the end will have to use force to impose that standard that they believe to be superior. And if they do not have the will or morale to back their idealistic words with mind-concentrating deeds, then they will be viewed with contempt by those other nations, who will see in weakness an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Just peruse the comments coming from President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry about the Ukraine crisis, and you can hear all the unexamined assumptions and received opinions that result from the incoherent combination of idealistic internationalism and national self-determination. Kerry scolded Putin by evoking the dubious idea that the world has progressed beyond violence and has endorsed diplomacy as the globally preferred method of adjudicating disputes, even as he sounded the ideal of national self-determination. Putin\u2019s actions, Kerry said, are \u201creally 19th-century behavior in the 21st century,\u201d not \u201cG-8, major-nation behavior.\u201d A sovereign nation using power to pursue its interests as determined by that nation is somehow uncivilized, according of course to Western ideals. No, Kerry instructs the wily Putin, \u201cIt is diplomacy and respect for sovereignty, not unilateral force, that can best solve disputes like this in the 21st century.\u201d But what if a sovereign nation determines that another nation\u2019s interests endanger its own, using force is in its interests, and diplomacy is merely a tactic in successfully doing so? Do we still \u201crespect\u201d that nation\u2019s sovereignty?<\/p>\n

So too the President, who said, \u201cOur goal is to make sure that the people of Ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future, that the people of Syria are able to make the decisions without having bombs going off.\u201d But what if it takes \u201cbombs going off,\u201d because of the aggressors who use violence to protect and advance their interests, to make sure Ukrainians and Syrians will in fact be able to \u201cmake decisions for themselves\u201d? Next Obama smugly asserts that Putin seemingly doesn\u2019t understand his own peoples\u2019 interests, which lie in embracing the international order. \u201cThere are times, I hope, where Russia will recognize that over the long term they should be on board with those values and interests as well,\u201d for \u201cIn 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.\u201d What possible empirical evidence can Obama produce that suggests this assertion is remotely true?<\/p>\n

Then he assures the Russians \u201cthat they can be part of an international community\u2019s effort to support the stability and success of a united Ukraine going forward, which is not only in the interest of the people of Ukraine and the international community, but also in Russia\u2019s interest.\u201d The assumption that the world has progressed beyond violence, and that a nation\u2019s interests can be advanced only by harmonizing with the interests of a fanciful \u201cinternational community,\u201d bespeaks a delusional arrogance dangerous in a world of nations that still see their particular interests, not those of a mythical \u201cinternational community,\u201d as paramount, and achieving them by any means they can get away with perfectly justified.<\/p>\n

The conflict of national sovereignty and international idealism cannot be resolved without sacrificing the former to the latter. If nations have a right to rule themselves and determine their interests, on what basis do we judge those interests unacceptable? And if there is a set of ideals and principles that transcend national sovereignty, where do they come from, who has decided that they are universal and superior, and who is going to enforce them? Certainly not today\u2019s West, whose intellectuals and elites, like Barack Obama, have embraced cultural relativism and self-loathing national guilt, even as they preach the gospel of human rights and idealistic internationalism that originated in the West and spread on the heels of Western power and economic success. Our hectoring sermons merely tell the world that we are weak, we don\u2019t believe even in the ideals we loudly profess, and aggressors are not going to be punished for their depredations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 The crisis in Ukraine is just the latest in a long series of foreign policy failures brought about by the incoherence in our thinking about foreign relations. On the one hand, we have championed ethnic-national self-determination as the highest international good, while on the other we have assumed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[929,375,22],"tags":[217,932,204,30,500,1021,1074,1016,894,1083,424],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1QV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7280,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-perils-of-international-idealism\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":0},"title":"The Perils of International Idealism","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"American foreign policy could use a does of hard-nosed realism. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Defining Ideas\u00a0 United States foreign policy has been defined lately by serial failures. Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and appears to be preparing a reprise in eastern Ukraine, and possibly in the Baltic states. Syrian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7075,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/sacrificing-the-military-to-entitlements\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":1},"title":"Sacrificing the Military to Entitlements","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Vladimir Putin, playing geopolitical chess while our president plays tiddlywinks, has effectively taken over Crimea. Armed men, looking suspiciously like Russian military personnel, have seized both airports and established border checkpoints decorated with Kalashnikovs and Russian flags. This comes after other armed men seized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ukraine"","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/ukraine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, center, is escorted by U.S. Air Force Gen. Jack Weinstein after arriving at the missile alert facility and launch control center at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., Jan. 9, 2014. Hagel was on a two-day trip to visit commands in the western United States.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/800px-thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3351,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-policy-charity-should-start-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":2},"title":"Foreign Policy Charity Should Start at Home","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The outbreak of protests and rebellion throughout the Middle East have quickly generated an orthodox narrative: When people suffering under brutal autocrats and dictators have finally risen up to satisfy the innate human longing for freedom and democracy, we should support these aspirations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7666,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/inventing-freedom-how-the-english-speaking-peoples-made-the-modern-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":3},"title":"Inventing Freedom. How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine The fundamental incoherence of multiculturalism comes from its cultural relativism that posits no one way of life is better than another, but then singles out the West as a uniquely oppressive global villain. Even more contradictory, at the same time that multiculturalists slander the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/9780062231734_p0_v5_s260x420-231x350.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3447,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/of-hawks-and-flies\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":4},"title":"Of Hawks and Flies","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The international order \u2014 comprising the United Nations, interstate diplomacy, organizations like NATO, and all the other transnational institutions that are supposed to keep the global peace and deter aggression \u2014 reminds me of the Spanish proverb about laws: they catch flies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7014,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-foreign-policy-enemy-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":7125,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Foreign Policy: Enemy Action","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 It\u2019s often hard to determine whether a series of bad policies results from stupidity or malicious intent. Occam\u2019s razor suggests that the former is the more likely explanation, as conspiracies assume a high degree of intelligence, complex organization, and secrecy among a large number\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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