Security First

In his new book Security First, Amitai Etzioni calls for a complete reorientation of American foreign policy. In order to minimize the threat to both American citizens and the global community at large, basic security for all—not democracy— must be America’s primary foreign policy goal. Basic security, Etzioni explains, is freedom from deadly violence, maiming, and torture.

Etizioni posits that Democracy may follow basic security, but without security first, democracy inevitably fails. Many citizens and leaders who oppose democracy and American liberal values nonetheless reject violence and want peace. But the number of American allies will be few if we consider only those who embrace liberal democratic values to be true allies.

Etzioni therefore argues that building a safe, stable, and peaceful world order requires that we count among our allies all nations that reject violence, genocide, and torture, even if some of these nations do not embrace American culture or ideology.

Amitai Etzioni is a Professor of International Relations at the George Washington University. Among his books are From Empire to Community, Political Unification Revisited, Winning Without War, and The Common Good. Etzioni has served as a Senior Aide to the White House and as President of the American Sociological Association. He has taught at Columbia, Harvard, and Berkeley and he was listed as one of the top 100 American intellectuals in Richard Posner’s book Public Intellectuals.

Video of this engaging discussion with Amitai Etzioni, including a Q&A session moderated by New America Whitehead Senior Fellow Michael Lind, is available at right. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below.

Participants

• Amitai Etzioni
  Professor of International Relations, George Washington University
  Author, Security First

• Michael Lind
  Whitehead Senior Fellow
  New America Foundation