Less is More: How A Reduced Foreign Policy Can Enhance America's National Security
Abstract
We barely stopped to celebrate the end of the Cold War. First, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Two years later the Soviet Union dissolved. But our national security strategists took no time off to party. Instead, they issued dour warnings about the new, more dangerous and complicated world before us. The new threats included uncontrolled nuclear weapons in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, weapons of mass destruction hidden somewhere in Iraq, anarchy and starvation in Somalia, continued support of terrorism from Iran, thwarting of the people's will in Haiti and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. The same grim and pessimistic realism that won the Cold War, we were told, would be more necessary than ever in this dangerous new era. Realistic pessimism has tended to be the prevailing attitude and philosophy for national security strategists in the 20th century. Idealists and optimists have not fared well: Wilson and the League of Nations, the disarmament conferences of the 1920s, British pacifists and America Firsters in the run-up to World War II, "Ban the Bomb" activists in the 1950s, Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. All have been ridiculed for naive and ineffectual idealism and/or optimism. But is it foolish to be an optimist as we close out this century? Not at all. The most striking feature of the world in recent times has been the demise of the dictator. This was most clearly articulated by Francis Fukuyama in his landmark 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man. He said the worldwide trend towards liberal, capitalist democracies is no fluke or passing phenomenon. Drawing on the works of Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel, Fukuyama postulated that neither a series of random events nor endlessly repeating cycles, but rather a straight line evolution in the direction of capitalism and democracy. In short, there is a direction to history and it is going our way.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA433212
Entities
People
- Richard C. Beer
Organizations
- National War College