Is making a policy decision in the "National Interest" smart anymore? Probably not.

 

Here's something I've been thinking about.

I've been grappling with a simple question.  Is the use of national interest, as the basis of security and foreign policy, a dumb idea in the present context?

National interest is a construct from the realism school of policy.  Realism is simply a case by case analysis of the costs and benefits of actions relative to the interests of the state, without reference to ideology or ideals (capitalism, communism, religion, etc.).

Realism assumes that the world is an anarchic, in a Hobbsian dog eat dog way, and that nation-states need to be selfish in order to survive.

Of course, things have changed since that formulation was developed.  In particular, we're now living in a world that is:

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