So you all know I am not given to hyperbole (smiley face) but I just saw an amazing lecture. I was invited to NYU Global Affairs Symposium where Richard Butler spoke.
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Richard Butler was the Chairman of the Commission to Disarm Iraq and a specialist in Nuclear Proliferation.
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The speech was about the need for a renewal of American Foreign Policy. It was fascinating. Granted off the bat, he did not like the Bush Administration, nor particularly the Clinton Administration, but he delivered a pretty searing indictment of American Foreign Policy anyway. And it was delivered as he was clearly saddened by this.
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One of his main points was that American's cannot not continue to hold 2 divergent policy goals. First that we can think of ourselves as s unique and special country with a mission to bring good to the world (he called it the Wilsonian principal) and second that we can hold on to an isolationist policy where we don't involve with the world (he called in the continental principal). Ambassador Butler noted that in a Globalized world the 2 policies call for different actions and doing one in some places and one in another makes us look inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst.
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Anyway, he is really bright and it was great.