A Thought I Had Driving In

For most purposes, approaches to our nation's foreign policy can be divided into three camps:

1. People who think there should be no limitations whatsoever on our actions, that everything we do should be justified by self-interest, and that our interests are never actually (or are rarely) harmed by behaving in accordance with that belief.

2. People who think the same, but realize that there are times where such behavior is actually damaging to our interests and so moderate their approach when there's a possibility (to one degree or another) ofblowback or unintended consequences for behaving as such.

3. People who generally believe that we should act in our own self-interest when necessary, but also believe that the United States and other nations should be subject to the international rule of law (and may believe that being subject to such law actually benefits our nation in the long-run.)

Naturally, this is a simple-minded list and is not really meant to be a definitive statement on the diversity (or lack thereof) of opinion on foreign policy by those who work in that field. But I think it's sufficient to describe the general thoughts of lay people such as us. Agree? Disagree?