“Therefore Be It Resolved …”: Toward More Realistic Foreign and Domestic Policies

Abstract

Few readers who have followed (and possibly even agreed with) our argument to this point will be greatly surprised by the two “resolutions” to which we think it inexorably leads. The first, of course, is “that the U.S. should not attempt nation building in the future unless careful study indicates the presence of most, if not all, of the requisite ‘enabling conditions’ in both the target nation and in this country”; The second is “that the U.S. can best further the cause of democracy world-wide by devoting its attention, energies and resources to resolving the political, social and economic problems that increasingly threaten the future of democratic government here at home.” Having already presented the evidence and reasoning that led us to these resolutions, we should next try to anticipate some of the questions and objections they are likely to elicit.