National Interest: Rhetoric, Leadership, and Policy

The five essays in this volume address the three basic functions that national interest can perform. First, an attention to national interest can guide the debate on foreign policy. Second, national interest can provide a justification for leadership. Third, national interest can serve as a tool in the formulation and analysis of policy. Daniel Lang asks why national interest-apparently so attractive and intellectually sturdy a concept-should in practice prove so difficult to define. Kenneth Thompson's essay analyzes Reinhold Niebuhr's response to the persistent strain among ethicists. W. David Clinton suggests that the overall national interest, properly understood as the polity's common good is vitally affected by the nature of the regime. Inis Claude reminds us that living up to its international responsibilities may well serve the long-term interest of the United States. Alan Tonelson concentrates on the possibility that the country's interests and its putative responsibilities will not coincide.