Amitai Etzioni Notes

Stanley Crossick reviews Security First

"That great Communitarian, Amitai Etzioni, compellingly argues that the first priority in foreign policy is to provide basic security, not to democratize (Security First, 2007, Yale University Press). He argues for a 'muscular, moral foreign policy' for the United States. Security cannot, however, be mainly based on military forces, police and other methods of law enforcement. Security is based largely on values, on most people most of the time doing what must be done because they believe they ought to do it.

When and where the right to security is violated, all other rights are violated as well. The prevention of genocide is a much more legitimate reason for intervening in the affairs of another country than, say, democratization.

Priorities, priorities, priorities

The current debate about the foreign policy of the next administration focuses on select hot spots (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan). Sometimes, Russia and Chain are mentioned. Very little attention is paid to what over arching principles are going to direct the new foreign policy and what basic strategy it is going to follow. Above all, no one is willing to come clean and openly admit that the United States –“the richest nation in the world”— can do much less than we wish, and hence must set priorities. Moreover, the United States may very well be unable to get very far down the list of what ought to be done, leaving much uncovered.

Review of Security First by Michael Contarino

"Democracy is a beautiful flower, but it does not grow wherever its seed is cast. Both neoconservatives and liberal internationalists have been seduced by the idea that if we promote democracy, peace and security will follow. They have it backwards, according to Amitai Etzioni. He believes that establishing order and protecting people from violence, rather than exporting democracy, should be the first priority of US foreign policy. The house of democracy cannot be built from the attic down.

In the wake of the Iraq war, it is not too difficult to convince people that promoting democracy through war is a fool's errand. Political sociologists have understood for decades a lot about the social requisites of democracy - and it is not surprising that a distinguished sociologist like Etzioni would note the elemental unreality of the Bush policy of democracy-via-blitzkrieg. But Etzioni goes even further than this. He argues that protecting America in today's world requires that we step away from democracy promotion so that we can focus on the urgent need to protect human life, both that of others and our own, in a very violent world.