Article
A Sound Principle, but Not a Playbook
American Behavioral Scientist - March 11, 2008
James B. Steinberg, Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs
Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy, by Amitai Etzioni, offers a
promising effort to transcend the sterile debate between realism and idealism in U.S.
foreign policy by arguing that the pursuit of security is a precondition to the longerterm
objective of promoting democracy and human rights. Although conceptually
appealing as a way to prioritize among potentially competing objectives, the book
struggles with thorny problems of implementation that plague real world policy
makers, including how to deal with the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran,
how to improve counterterrorism cooperation by ambivalent partners like Pakistan and
when to intervene in the case of failed states.
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