The National Interest

Daniel Drezner had a good piece in the National Interest last week on the difficulties the GOP will have in formulating a foreign policy alternative to the Obama administration. In it, Drezner writes:

The concept of a “loyal opposition” is a difficult one to straddle. On the one hand, it is vital for Americans to be exposed to contrasting takes on the best way to advance American interests. Opposition forces the current leadership to defend and articulate their preferred course of action. On the other hand, opposition based on the principles of Joe the Plumber is simply not an opposition that can be taken seriously. [emphasis mine]

Here's the thing - why don't we have contrasting takes on what American interests are? There are a lot of debatable assumptions about the role of the U.S. military abroad, the present alliance structure, defense obligations, etc., that get quietly tucked under the rubric of interests when they really need to be examined in broad daylight. As I wrote during the campaign, this dynamic implicitly hurts the Democrats (and moderate Republicans):

Any debate about national security is rooted in a perception of American interests. Yet the Obama campaign has not focused much attention on defining what America’s fundamental security interests are – but on how best to manage them. On issues such as Iran and North Korea, the signature difference between the two parties is not over the extent to which these nations represent uniquely American problems (as opposed to regional ones), but the tools with which they propose to “solve” them.

Indeed, the approach advocated by Obama and the Democrats – cast aside multilateral diplomacy in favor of direct negotiations – reinforces the presumption that no other country has as much at stake in a nuclear Iran or North Korea than the U.S. But that is absurd. Just look at a map.

By conceding the premise of American security interests, it’s easy to see why Democrats keep losing the politics. If America is to be the world’s policeman, who is the more credible figure: the state trooper ready to club the bad guys, or the security guard at the mall, brandishing a walk-talkie?

At a very basic level, everyone agrees on the overriding American interest: we want an international environment conducive to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at home. But after that, it's really up for grabs.