 can t think of how i d be running afoul of the spam filters with this post so here s the second try kissinger s book _does america need a foreign policy _ provides a few handy abstractions the ultimate dilemma of the statesman is to strike a balance between values idealism and interests realism and occasionally between peace and justice also he views historical american approaches to foreign policy as a bundle of three fibers hamiltonian we should only get involved in foreign adventures to preserve balances of power wilsonian we should only get involved in foreign adventures to further democracy etc jacksonian we should never get involved in foreign adventures unless we re attacked then we go rambo he has tactfully left out the hard realists as for the rest i gather wilsonians play the idealists and hamiltonians act where values and interests intersect and jacksonians act only when values and interests overlap kissinger himself seems to be a hamiltonian much of the book is about how he thinks we ought to be shaping the balance of power in various foreign regions maybe i ve been too affected by kant but i can t see that such a strategy works unless one can count on a bismarck runnning it how lopsided does the us look if everyone tries to run a balance of power politics dave the road to empire leads to domestic decay because in time the claims of omnipotence erode domestic restraints no empire has avoided the road to caesarism unless like the british empire it devolved its power before this process could develop in long lasting empires every problem turns into a domestic issue which should be handled very differently from international ones because the outside world no longer provides a counterweight and as challenges grow more diffuse and increasingly remote from the historic domestic base internal struggles become ever more bitter and in time violent a deliberate quest for hegemony is the surest way to destroy the values that made the united states great kings and tyrants generically have followed the same power politics garner popular support by keeping potential oligarchs down in other traditions a king is a legitimate tyrant and a tyrant an illegitimate king in the us i d hope that we like samuel wouldn t naturally make such fine distinctions 