The Return of American Realism
In contrast to George W. Bush's “idealist” advocacy of making democracy promotion the main priority for US foreign policy, the Obama administration is engineering a return to "realism" that is both desirable and necessary. While encouraging the rule of law and the growth of civil society, the US still needs to work with other governments, democratic and otherwise.
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NEW YORK – There are many recurring debates in American foreign policy – for example, isolationism versus internationalism, and unilateralism versus multilateralism. But no debate is more persistent than that between those who believe that American foreign policy’s principal purpose should be to influence the external behavior of other states and those who hold that it should be to shape their internal nature.