The Great Foreign Policy Debate

Seyom Brown

Expert InsightsPublished 1968

A historical review of the internal debate on U.S. foreign policy since 1947, with a definition of new premises. A basic foreign policy consensus (“containing communism”) has existed until recently, defined as: U.S. security is threatened primarily by Soviet expansion, aided by worldwide communist aggression, to which critical obstacles must be supplied by the United States. Serious challenge of the validity of this framework of foreign policy brings us to a point of decision regarding new premises. Decline of the anticommunism ideology, if effected, can be met either by (1) withdrawal, with deceptively secure isolation, by leaving survival to the fittest, or (2) recognition that U.S. strength should aim further than self-protection — that it should aid in breaking down artificial international barriers by sharing the surpluses of U.S. energy.

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1968
  • Pages: 24
  • Document Number: P-3815

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Brown, Seyom, The Great Foreign Policy Debate. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1968. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P3815.html.
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