17 Rules for Foreign Interventions

Sunday, April 30th, 2017

George Liebmann presents 17 rules for foreign interventions:

Do not attempt to establish multi-ethnic democracies in nations with no traditions of limited government. Each faction believes that “an alien master is worst of all” and dreads the certain prospect of total subordination to the election victors.

Remember that, as George Kennan said, the worst of rulers knows things about his country that foreigners do not. Respect the beliefs of simple folk, however misguided: rapid dislocations produce horrors directed at the harbingers of modernity.

Do not resist secessionist movements. They allow smaller groups to be satisfied with their governments. Be mindful of the happy fates of the parties to the “velvet divorce” in Czechoslovakia, of the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union.

Do not denigrate religious and non-economic values.

Remember that wars waged without UN Security Council support must be paid for without the help of other nations.

Remember that wars cannot be won on the cheap, without infantry. Refugee flows inevitably accompany war, and avoidance of them is a vital national interest.

Detest and abhor proportional representation in elections, allocating seats to large and small parties on the basis of their percentage of the national vote. This is what gave us Weimar, the Third and Fourth Republics, and the present Israeli Knesset.

Do not discourage or be shocked by limitation of the franchise, including literacy tests and property qualifications. Such rules played a useful part in Anglo-American history. Foster indirect elections, as in parliamentary elections and the original American constitution. They allow the character of officials to be assessed by those who know something about them.

Foster local rather than central government.

Draw foreign-affairs officials from those versed in history and literature: the study of how human beings have behaved in fact.

Remember that economic sanctions are not measures short of war but, as Herbert Hoover and others reminded us, measures of total war. Sanctions foster government control and rationing, do not injure the military, and victimize merchants and intellectuals. Avoid the creation of “hermit kingdoms”; maintain channels of academic, economic, and press communication, and do not neglect the importance of translations of foreign publications.

Respect public opinion rather than polls; nurture intelligent discussion. Beware of governments, domestic or foreign, that centralize control over culture, morals, or education.

Remember that there is more to law than constitutional law, lest law schools become “schools for misrule.”

Do not let devotion to free markets cause you to forget about class envy. As Bertrand de Jouvenal wrote, “the wealth of merchants is resented more than the pomp of rulers.”

Foster open societies, but not equal ones.

Heed Kennan’s call for gardeners rather than physicists in foreign relations. Focus foreign aid on land titling, justice systems, swift creditors’ remedies, public-health services, language education, and agricultural research.

Lower trade barriers and help create the basis for a stable currency.

Comments

  1. Graham says:

    Although there’s a fair bit of [paleo]con thinking in there, it’s surprising how much of it could and should be the basis for common ground on right and left in foreign relations. Not much common ground given the left can no longer see a war it doesn’t like or the neocons either, but some.

    But the Cold War experience and post-CW progressive thought have tainted US government irrevocably. You can never ever wean them off the idea of strong central government with strong economic levers and unifying tools over culture and society. And a republic. Has to be a republic.

    They’ve got the universal nation-building playbook and they’re running it step by step.

  2. Wang Weilin says:

    Sounds like generally good advice for domestic policy.

  3. Lucklucky says:

    “Do not resist secessionist movements. They allow smaller groups to be satisfied with their governments. Be mindful of the happy fates of the parties to the ‘velvet divorce’ in Czechoslovakia, of the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union.”

    Good. No freedom without secession rights.

    “Detest and abhor proportional representation in elections, allocating seats to large and small parties on the basis of their percentage of the national vote. This is what gave us Weimar, the Third and Fourth Republics, and the present Israeli Knesset.”

    That is not very limited Government.

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