"The "national interest" is not a geographical term, except for fairly prosaic matters like trade and environmental regulation. A smaller nation might appropriately feel that its national interest begins and ends at its borders, so that its foreign policy is almost always in a defensive mode. A larger nation has more extensive interests. And large nations, whose identity is ideological, like the Soviet Union of yesteryear and the United States of today, inevitably have ideological interests in addition to more material concerns. Barring extraordinary events, the United States will always feel obliged to defend, if possible, a democratic nation under attack from nondemocratic forces, external or internal. That is why it was in our national interest to come to the defense of France and Britain in World War II. That is why we feel it necessary to defend Israel today, when its survival is threatened. No complicated geopolitical calculations of national interest are necessary."
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Philosophers from the United StatesJournalists from the United StatesColumnists from the United StatesPeople from New York CityPublishers from the United States
Original Language: English
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"The Neoconservative Persuasion" (25 August 2003), The Weekly Standard
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irving_Kristol
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Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol (22 January 1920 – 18 September 2009) was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism."
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