Source: Quillette
by Brian Stewart
“Foreign-policy realism today still adheres to a circumscribed definition of national interest with little regard for what it views as lesser (and dangerously messianic) moral concerns. It casts a jaundiced eye on a foreign policy influenced by the impulse to ‘remake the world in its own image.’ It bitterly regrets that so many Americans stubbornly regard their homeland not merely as a country but also a cause. … In more practical terms, the realist persuasion holds that America’s longstanding grand strategy has become at once profligate in the use of military force and self-defeating. To so-called realists today, not only does the United States have no vested interest in an extensive system of defence commitments and forward military deployments, but these accoutrements of its global posture also tempt imperial overstretch while eliciting adverse behaviour from allies and adversaries alike.” (09/08/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/09/08/the-multipolarity-mirage-first-among-equals-emma-ashford-review/