Dimitri K. Simes, Pratik Chougule and Paul J. Saunders — Course Correction

More elite disaffection with the establishment, here the foreign policy establishment.

Despite the presence of many individuals of common sense and integrity in government, U.S. leaders have too often forgotten that jumping off a cliff is easier than climbing back to safety. Notwithstanding the election of some well-informed and thoughtful individuals to the Senate and House of Representatives, the Congress has largely abdicated its responsibility to foster serious debate on foreign policy and has failed to fulfill its constitutional role as a check on executive power. The mainstream media has become an echo chamber for a misbegotten and misguided consensus.

But Americans can no longer afford to accept bad policies in the hopes that things will somehow work out. Today’s world is too complex and too dangerous, with more major powers, less discipline among international blocs and factions, and greater power for nonstate actors.…

America's geographical isolation from adverse consequences and immense economic and military power encourage reckless behavior based on assumptions like "exceptionalism" and "exerting leadership" as justifications for policies exceeding the national interest that pose costs, risks, and unforeseeable unintended consequences.

The National Interest
Course Correction

Dimitri K. Simes, publisher and CEO of the National Interest and president of the Center for the National Interest; Pratik Chougule, managing editor of the National Interest, and Paul J. Saunders, executive director of the Center for the National Interest.