Instead of trying to spread liberalism, its foreign policy should have been pragmatic

Irfan ul Haq

The foreign policy the US followed after the end of the Cold War to establish liberal hegemony in the world was doomed to fail. A more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of nationalism and realism could have proved more effective. These are the main arguments acclaimed scholar John Mearsheimer has put forward in the tome that analyses Washington’s underpinnings of its international relations.

Mearsheimer writes that liberal thinkers generally concur that people have a set of inalienable rights. It takes a night watchman or a state to guard these rights. Additionally, many liberal academics contend that the state as an institution must practice