121 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
121 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
From fork-admin@xent.com Thu Sep 26 11:04:44 2002
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Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:40:12 -0700
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To: fork@example.com
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Subject: Kissinger
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From: Dave Long <dl@silcom.com>
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Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:40:12 -0700
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[can't think of how I'd be running
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afoul of the spam filters with this
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post, so here's the second try...]
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Kissinger's book _Does America Need
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a Foreign Policy?_ provides a few
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handy abstractions:
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> The ultimate dilemma of the statesman is to strike a balance between
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> values ["idealism"] and interests ["realism"] and, occasionally,
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> between peace and justice.
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Also, he views historical American
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approaches to foreign policy as a
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bundle of three fibers:
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Hamiltonian - We should only get
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involved in foreign adventures
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to preserve balances of power.
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Wilsonian - We should only get
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involved in foreign adventures
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to further democracy, etc.
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Jacksonian - We should never get
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involved in foreign adventures.
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Unless we're attacked. Then we
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go Rambo.
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He has tactfully left out the hard
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realists*; as for the rest I gather
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wilsonians play the idealists, and
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hamiltonians act where values and
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interests intersect, and jacksonians
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act only when values and interests
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overlap.
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Kissinger himself seems to be a
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Hamiltonian; much of the book is
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about how he thinks we ought to
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be shaping the balance of power
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in various foreign regions.
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Maybe I've been too affected by
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Kant, but I can't see that such
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a strategy works unless one can
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count on a Bismarck runnning it:
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how lopsided does the US look if
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everyone tries to run a balance
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of power politics?
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- -Dave
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*
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> The road to empire leads to domestic decay because, in time, the claims
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> of omnipotence erode domestic restraints. No empire has avoided the
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> road to Caesarism unless, like the British Empire, it devolved its
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> power before this process could develop. In long-lasting empires,
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> every problem turns into a domestic issue [which should be handled
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> very differently from international ones] because the outside world
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> no longer provides a counterweight. And as challenges grow more
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> diffuse and increasingly remote from the historic domestic base,
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> internal struggles become ever more bitter and in time violent.
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> A deliberate quest for hegemony is the surest way to destroy the
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> values that made the United States great.
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Kings and tyrants generically have
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followed the same power politics:
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garner popular support by keeping
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potential oligarchs down. In other
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traditions, a king is a legitimate
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tyrant, and a tyrant an illegitimate
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king. In the US, I'd hope that we,
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like Samuel, wouldn't naturally make
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such fine distinctions.
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