Advancing American values, interests, and security at home and abroad through diplomacy, development, military engagement, and international institutions.
The term “foreign policy” has become synonymous with all official acts of government abroad, from negotiating treaties to making public declarations to promoting cultural exchanges. Yet despite the proliferation of diplomatic tools and techniques, the essential work of foreign policy remains preventing war between countries, defusing tensions and finding paths to peaceful compromise. Indeed, some of history’s greatest military minds have also served as diplomats.
Since World War I, the United States has elevated its pursuit of internationalist principles to a pedestal as a self-defining virtue justifying any policy choice. Its leaders, especially Woodrow Wilson, envisioned spreading these values to the entire world, believing that a world of democracies was a more just and humane one.
Those principles have led to the wise application of American primacy, which can advance U.S. values and interests by breaking deadlocks and stalemates that impede progress on issues from bringing democracy to the Balkans and North Ireland to preserving financial stability around the globe. The use of force has evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait, convinced Haiti’s military junta to relinquish power, and broke al-Qaida’s grip on Afghanistan.
Cooperation can help extend the life of American primacy, as well, by spreading costs across a larger group of actors and lessening the chance that other cultures or political tactics will sap its strength over time. By adapting and extending proven international institutions and arrangements such as NATO and the Bretton Woods monetary system, Washington can imbed its influence in ways that are durable.
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