Constructive Engagement

The use of soft power as a competitive advantage for the United States will require us to move away from a proclivity for confrontation and conflict and toward a strategy of constructive engagement. This should involve not only the rebuilding of damaged alliances with other democracies. It must include engaging our enemies in dialogue, as Barack Obama has rightly suggested. At this point, I believe it is important to define what constructive engagement is and is not before we get into the specifics of foreign policy initiatives this approach would naturally suggest.

First, it is not appeasement, as John McCain, George Bush and many on the Right have suggested. It is also not merely paying lip service to collaboration and internationalism while refusing to compromise on all issues, which is closer to the approach of the Clinton administration. Both approaches would result in failure – appeasement because it sacrifices national interests for agreement, and Clintonian internationalism because it results in ineffectual coalitions and little meaningful progress on most issues.

Constructive engagement must begin with a clear and thorough assessment of national interests. It requires definition of those core interests on which we will accept no compromise. We must also determine areas where we have limited flexibility (and what those limitations are), as well as those where we might have a view but would be willing to compromise in exchange for progress on matters more vital to our national security. Constructive engagement must also involve real interaction with both our friends and our enemies. It involves careful listening and analysis to understand what motivates the other side, not just telling them what we want – or more recently, demand – that they do. It is important to emphasize, though that engagement is not an end in itself. We must always engage with a view toward the achievement of clearly defined policy objectives and the advancement of core national interests, even if those are aims as “idealistic” as the spread of democracy, human rights and free markets.