The Changing Nature of Credibility: From Interest to Instrument to Vital Interest, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love "The Box"
Abstract
Every nation has an abstract interest in its reputation for prestige or credibility. A nation's leaders frequently rely on that reputation as a necessary element of statecraft. This credibility can be transformed from an instrument of statecraft into a vital national interest when a statesman's reliance on it is insufficient to influence another actor in the desired manner. American experience demonstrates that this elevation of the importance of credibility can result from too strong a focus on U.S. military capacity and insufficient attention to the interests and perceptions of the adversary. It is not at all clear that the United States' interest in preserving its reputation for credibility can ever successfully be advanced through the application of military force to a specific situation. This question will become more relevant as the United States more aggressively pursues value-based interests, which traditionally have been viewed as interests of lesser intensity. This lesser intensity results in reduced U.S. credibility with regard to those interests and should affect the manner of statecraft used in their pursuit. Donald Nuechterlein's prioritization of national interests based on their intensity frames current debate on the topic. He placed those interests essential to national survival at the top of the hierarchy followed, in order, by vital interests, major interests, and peripheral interests. Survival interests generate little discussion due to their relative clarity. In contrast, the term "vital interest" is used with such frequency and applied so irregularly that it has been rendered almost meaningless. Rejecting the popular means-based definitions, this paper modifies the definition advanced by Nuechterlein. An interest will be considered vital if it is "so important to a nation's well being that its leadership refuses to compromise...and [over which the leadership is] willing to risk economic or military [losses].
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 26, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA444257
Entities
People
- Christopher D. Carey
Organizations
- National War College