The Means and Ends of Foreign Policy Posted by Shadi Hamid

Responding to a post of mine, Jim Arkedis further explains what he means by "smart pragmatism”:

By "smart pragmatism," I mean that future administrations will eschew heavily ideological approaches to pursuing our self-interest, in favor of pragmatic ones.

What about when we need to pursue more than our (narrowly-defined) self-interest? What about when there's a compelling moral reason for taking a course of action which may not be considered pragmatic? How is that decision to be made?

Chris Hayes' meditation on these questions is a must-read. But his analysis seems more relevant to domestic than to foreign policy. The explicit goal of domestic policy is to serve our self-interest in tangible and clearly discernible ways. The goal of foreign policy, similarly, is to further our self-interest, as Arkedis notes. But the phrase "self-interest" is used by writers of different ideological stripes who have widely divergent ideas of what constitutes "self-interest." In any case, the explicit goal of foreign policy is to serve our self-interest, but not necessarily in tangible and clearly discernible ways. There is also the matter of short-term and long-term imperatives, and what takes precedence.   

Ideology has a lot to do with how we define our self-interest, and whether we prioritize long-term objectives. Ideology also influences how we interpret the limits (or lack thereof) of American power. Either way, I would say there are times when resort to “ideology” is called for. There are other times when it is not just called for, but necessary. There are some difficult things we should do but don’t in foreign policy because they are difficult and require overcoming policy inertia. This inertia is why it's generally hard to make sharp shifts in policy.

A "pragmatic" approach to foreign policy, on its own, will result in a more effective policy, but not necessarily one that is more just. Sometimes (without the direction ideology provides), pragmatism means taking an easier path when the harder path is the right one. There are always trade-offs. Particularly when it comes to the Middle East, U.S. policy has been notoriously reactive and oriented around short-term imperatives. We need to move beyond the prevailing ad-hoc approach to regional policy, and reassess what our actual long-term objectives are. This may require more than “smart pragmatism.” It may require the vision thing, and a set of clear convictions about what we must do. But what if what we must do is something we can’t do? Arkedis says:

Hopefully the ideological disaster of the last eight years will provide an explicitly cautionary tale to those heavy believers in what America should be able to do, rather than what it can.”

The two imperatives here – what must be done and what can be done – are not unrelated. One’s belief in the latter will inform the former and vice-versa. If you believe that America must support democracy in the Middle East, you are more likely to believe that it is possible. In my view, the last 8 years demonstrated that knowing what we should do can be more important than what we can do. We can invade a country and overthrow it (and maybe even in 10 years make it into a relative democracy), but that doesn’t mean we should. We can support brutal Arab dictators with billions in U.S. aid each year, but that doesn’t mean we should, even when such support appears to be in our short-term interest.

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

These juvenile discussions just get worse and worse. Arkedis is particularly muddled. Fortunately, it is unlikely this seminar room chatter will have any impact on the actual world of policy.

[Jim Arkedis]

Dan -

You're right - after reviewing a few things I wrote, I could have been clearer.

But you know what's worse that wasting everyone's time with juvenile discussions that won't have any impact on the actual world of policy?

Taking the time to comment on them.

If you don't like a series of posts - then no big deal, just ignore them. It just strikes me as odd to lob rotten tomatoes from afar.

[Dan Kervick]

My comment was brief, Jim, and took hardly any time to compose at all.

I just hate to see intellectual talent and energy wasted on arid and unproductively abstract discussions involving extremely vague and nearly useless terms like "ideological" and "pragmatic". There is something pathetically perpetual about these debates, which are frequently clumsily posed and never resolved, and seem to leave everything in the real world just as it was before the latest epicycle of the debate took place.

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