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A clash of interests: will it be the national interest, or the interests of the 'international community'? This is a campaign question
National Review, April 5, 2004 by Lee A. Casey, David B. Rivkin, Jr.
Naturally, the new Carolingians recognize an exception to this rule where their own vital interests are involved--as demonstrated by the 1999 NATO war with Serbia over Kosovo. The Kosovo crisis was of paramount importance to France and Germany (one fearing Muslim reaction, the other a renewed flood of Balkan refugees)--but of only humanitarian concern to the United States. Russia would have vetoed any Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against the Serbs, and so France, Germany, and the EU were happy to have NATO proceed without U.N. authorization. It is a purely self-interested form of legitimacy that our allies are peddling, and the role they appear to have reserved for the United States is not unlike that of the 18thcentury Hessians: the muscle. But unlike the Hessians, who were paid for their services, the United States is expected to both fight and foot the bill.
This, ultimately, is what the multilateralism the Democrats have embraced means, and this is what they will ask the American people to endorse on November 2. In the months to come, the Bush administration would be well advised to articulate clearly the profound differences between its national-interest-driven foreign policy--where multilateral action is a means to an end--and Senator Kerry's policy, where multilateralism is an end in itself. (Indeed, Kerry proudly proclaims that he is supported by many foreign leaders against President Bush.) The electorate can then decide whether Uncle Sam should become Uncle Sucker.
Messrs. Casey and Rivkin are partners in the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. Both served in the Justice Department during the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.
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