(absent get notes) Lecture 3 (cont'd): Thinking about the National Interest The news: U.S. Envoy Urges Gaza CeaseFire NYT Jan 28, 2009 At a Border Crossing, Drivers and Truckloads of Aid for Gaza Go Nowhere , NYT Jan 28, 2009 Clinton Sees an Opportunity for Iran to Return to Diplomacy , NYT Jan 28, 2009 Aides Say Obama_s Afghan Aims Elevate War , NYT Jan 28, 2009 <a href="/keyword/jimmy-carter/" >jimmy carter</a> with Jon Stewart , Jan 26, 2009 Jon Stewart on Obama's Interview with AlArabya , Jan. 28, 2009 Two years ago: President Bush's State of the Union Address, full text NYT Jan 24, 2007 Clash Pits Hezbollah Against Rule in Lebanon , NYT Jan 24, 2007 What if Israel and Syria Find Common Ground? NYT Jan 24, 2007 Chinese Leader to Visit Sudan for Talks on Darfur Conflict NYT Jan 25, 2007 From last class: &quot;Islam has bloody borders.&quot; Double standards?? (Huntington says no: &quot;people apply one standard to their kincountry and a different standard to others...&quot; p13. Are human rights (and democracy) viewed as imperialism by those reacting against western values, p17.and is it possible to modernize but not to westernize?...cf Mexico and Turkey efforts to be part of Europe, USA.. Alternative visions: what else, besides clashes of civilization, shapes our world? American empire? : we have little appetite, lack the skills, in an unruly world. realism: contending states and the balance of power Realpolitik? globalization and class war: trade, mobile capital, people on the move, communications and threats to national sovereignty as Putin once declared! but states survive, especially with the current crisis. interdependence: New World Order (GHW Bush) the liberal vision of international relations <a href="/keyword/immanuel-kant/" >immanuel kant</a> , Perpetual Peace: A Philosophic Sketch (1795) Major problems environment: the problem of global warming NorthSouth : the problem of economic inequality FrancoisRene de Chateaubriand, 1841: &quot;The too great disproportion of conditions and fortunes could be sustained as long as it was hidden; but as soon as this disproportion has been generally noticed, the death blow has been dealt....what will you do with the human race, unemployed?&quot; anarchy and the privatization of WMD see, for example, smuggling uranium in Georgia asymmetrical warfare: declining utility of traditional arms and armies Three kinds of power (Joseph Nye) military economic &quot;soft&quot; (persuasion legitimacy moral example) needed for tackling many major problems, including WOT. Increasingly important with ever faster, deeper communications associated with globalization. The politics of muddling through, most difficult in the Middle East where: US ethnic interests yet world strategic center is <a href="/keyword/persian-gulf/" >persian gulf</a> region...oil....terrorism? For a start: US goals in the region: homeland defense Israel oil Egypt, Saudi Arabia, other friendly governments? justice? human rights? democracy the American beacon? Pax Americana? democracy within and among nations? Where is your preferred vision of the world and America's role in the world? as a start toward let me repeat doing your own foreign policy making.