The United States ought not to intervene in the political processes of other sovereign nations

The founding fathers of the United States of America did not advocate foreign intervention. Thomas Jefferson is known to have said “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none,” while George Washington is also cited to have urged the nation to “Act for ourselves and not for others by forming an American character wholly free of foreign attachments.” It is because I believe, in accordance with these two great leaders, in the sovereignty of the United States and of countries throughout the world and the rights that comply with that sovereignty, that I affirm the resolution, “Resolved: The United States ought not to intervene in the political processes of other sovereign nations." A few important terms include the following: Justice: To give each his fair due. Black’s Law Dictionary Sovereign nation: A nation with the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived. Black’s Law Dictionary Political process: The process of the formulation and administration of public policy by interaction between political leadership and public opinion. Merriam-Webster Dictionary I value I will uphold is justice. Justice is the most important concept in this resolution because it is ultimately the code that society and the world accede to in order that they might endure. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, justice is to give each his fair due, in the context of this resolution, each sovereign nation their fair due. Each sovereign nation has the right of autonomy granted to them in the philosophy of the United Nations, the UN charter. When this right is infringed upon, justice is threatened, for in words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This brings me to my value criterion. The value criterion I will use to achieve my value of justice is the right of nations to self-determination. Self-determination is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “Freedom of the people of a given area to determine their own political status; independence,” and is granted by the UN charter. This right of nations was instituted in order to ensure that a nation, once forming an autonomy, is given the ability to function freely, unrestricted from the interference of others. This allocated right is just because it is a provider of liberty. Contention 1: U.S. intervention in the political processes of sovereign nations violates the standards of justice by infringing upon the rights of autonomy granted within the UN charter. Each nations that has claimed for itself autonomy, has the right of liberty. The United States, however, with their foreign policy of intervention, disregards that intrinsic right to liberty. The gravity of this error, that of taking away another’s liberty, can only be adequately viewed from the eyes of the victim. Congressman Ron Paul explores this scenario in the following excerpt from his address to Americans: “Imagined for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of ‘keeping us safe’ or ‘promoting democracy’ or ‘protecting their strategic interests.’ Imagine that they operated outside of U.S. law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up check points on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.” Because we, as secure citizens of the United States, do not have to face the harsh realities of foreign intervention, we cannot begin to understand the negative consequences brought upon that sovereign nation, from which is being stolen its autonomy. International law gives sovereign nations the right to liberty, and foreign intervention takes away that liberty, that autonomy, and that sovereignty of which was founded their nation. Contention 2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs demonstrates the necessity of nations to maintain autonomy through self-actualization in order to attain a functional international society. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a nation (in this case) must self-actualize, or make itself the best it can be. A nation must adhere to its own responsibilities and further its own interests in order to constitute a healthy society. Foreign intervention hinders a nation from attaining self-actualization because a dependency on the interventionist nation is created. This dependency quickly begins a cycle of deterioration within the nation, which then negatively affects the rest of the world. Ideally, every nation should reach a state of autonomy, however this goal can never be remotely achieved if the United States continues to create reliant and helpless nations through their policy of foreign intervention. Contention 3: The United States is negatively affected by its own interventionist policies. As Congressman Ron Paul has frequently observed, “Foreign entanglements are the ties that strangle.” He goes on to state on the subject, “Our friend one day is our enemy the next. And all our friends’ enemies become our enemies. How many times have we armed both sides of a conflict because of this? This is not an intelligent way to interact with the world.” Not only are these alliances entangling, but they are costly as well. Congressman Paul recently highlighted the “irony of sending nearly one billion dollars overseas in military earmarks as we close down bases here at home to save money.” This is simply not a practical way in which to maintain our own autonomy. When all funds are exhausted, we will not be able to uphold the dependent nations we have created, much less satisfy our own needs. As Rome did before us, we will over-extend our resources and so debilitate our once great nation.