Promoting the National Interest: Condoleezza Rice

In case anyone missed it, back in 2000 Condi Rice wrote this piece for Foreign Affairs. It’s a good insight into the mind of the new Secretary of State.

Foreign policy in a Republican administration will most certainly be internationalist; the leading contenders in the party’s presidential race have strong credentials in that regard. But it will also proceed from the firm ground of the national interest, not from the interests of an illusory international community. America can exercise power without arrogance and pursue its interests without hectoring and bluster. When it does so in concert with those who share its core values, the world becomes more prosperous, democratic, and peaceful. That has been America’s special role in the past, and it should be again as we enter the next century.