THE HILL
By: Jakub Grygiel
Isolationism is tempting. We may look at the world and see distant wars as local squabbles that, tragic as they may be, do not impact our life. War in Ukraine? It must be another eruption of ancient tribal hatreds and we should steer clear of it. Moreover, we may be tempted to blame conflicts in faraway lands to our own actions, with our rivals responding only to us and our presence nearby. Hence, as some suggest, Russia must have invaded Ukraine because we were dragging a pro-Russian Kyiv into our camp. In either case, the result is a call for disengagement with the world: let’s come home and live a tranquil life.
Such views become more prominent at election time. They appeal to large swaths of the electorate because they promise national well-being at no cost. We can live better by doing less! On the right side of the spectrum, this is a call for rebuilding the U.S. with the money purportedly saved by withdrawing from foreign policy. On the left side, this is a call to amp domestic social engineering while letting post-modern international institutions take care of the world. Both advocate isolationism for different purposes and with different logics behind them.
