Is Our Foreign Policy Good? American Moral Absolutism and the China Challenge

Many Americans frame frictions with China not only as a set of conflicting interests to be managed, but as a decisive battle between Democracy and Autocracy, between Good and Evil. In this formulation, our interests are often equated with the maintenance of our power and our power is viewed in millenarian terms. This tendency is baffling not only to our adversaries, but to our allies as well. Why do we lean on normative language whenever we feel threatened? And how can we make convincing argu...