National interest

National interest

1. ¿What is?

   • The idea of ​​the national interest has two factors
     • at the level of aspirations, it springs from history and ideology,
       • While the concept of interest is indeed the substance of politics and is, therefore, perpetual and uninfluenced by time and place,
         • the national state is a historical product and is not anything but changing. So the relation between interest and the national state 3 is changing with vicissitude of time and place.
     • at the level of operational activities, adaptations of practices and specific circumstances, it is based on a more or less correct assessment of the available capacities and resources.
       • The survival among nations is the central element of the concept of 5 the national interest, around which other elements are fashioned according to circumstances.
   • Treason
     • One is the case of treason committed by individuals for a foreign government
     • The other treason is committed by minorities of race and ideology on behalf of a foreign government.

2. The national interest vs. moral principles

   • Throughout the history of the national-state system the contest between the national interest and moral principles has been striven for domination over "minds and actions of men.
     • Proclamation of Neutrality was issued by George Washington on April 22, 1793 declaring that the United States would not join either side of antagonists in the war then waged by Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain and. the United Netherlands against revolutionary France
       • American public opinion was raged against it because of being contrary to moral principles, such as American obligation of the treaty with France, gratitude for the French assistance, and the affinity of republican .institutions
         • In defense of that proclamation and against these moral principles Alexander Hamilton appealed to the national interest of the United States.
     • The second period was introduced by Thomas Jefferson and John Q. Adams.
       • Thus "a discrepancy between political thought and PQlitical actionl/ 7 was characteristic of this period, however, "it so happened that by a felicitous coincidence what the moral law demanded of the United States was always identical with what its national interest seem to require.
     • It was characteristic of the third period that the national interest was no longer justified by moral principles as in the second period, but it was replaced by them as a pointer' for 8 action.
       • This period was represented by Woodrow Wilson who not only neglected the national interest, but was openly against it due to his moral principles
     • The interwar years were dominated by the so-called isolationism.
       • By having rejected the Wilsonian moralism and internationalism and recoiling from international affairs, the isolationists of the twenties and thirties believed that they were restoring the early Hamiltonian tradition of American foreign policy.
         • But they did not truly undererstand the real meaning of the policies of the Founding Fathers
     • The fifth period began with the revival of Wilsonianism and the triumph of internationalism over isolationism in the late thirties.
       • When the United States was confronted with the crisis of the national interest, Franklin D. Roosevelt defended it on moral grounds.
     • since the end of the Second World World War, the United States has tried to adjust herself and to cope with new problems rising from political conditions of the world.
       • In the process, however, there is a tendency to equate political moralism based on abstract principles with morality and political realism, national interests with immorality.

3. The balance of power as the national interest

   • Morgenthau as David Hume
     • declares that the balance of power is a universal law of international politics
   • Alfred Vagts
     • maintains that it has been "the guiding principle of American foreign policy.
   • the historic facts prove the universality of the balance of power.
     • both the First and Second W orId Wars were fought by the United States believing that the victory of Germany in Europe or the conquest of Europe by Germany would endanger the security of the United States in the Western Hemisphere
       • Even though foreign policies of the United States have been professed in moralistic or idealistic terms, yet the essence of them has been and is the balance of power - the national interest.

4. The moral dignity of the national interest

   • In face of the accusation that the pursuit of the national interest by every nation would necessarily presuppose a world of Hobbes,
     • Morgenthau refutes this criticism by differentiating his position from that of Hobbes.
       • His refutation consists of five points
         • Finally the realist differenciates between his moral feelings and the interests of politics
         • The first point is the so-called "requirement of cosmic humility" 1 concerning the moral estimation of the actions of nations
         • The second point is with repect to the "effectiveness of the restraints which morality imposes upon the actions of states.
         • The third point is as to the dealings between political actions and u~iversal moral principles.
         • The fourth point is the difference between the realist and the utopian.

Bilder und Dateien der Mindmap