“If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us,” George W. Bush said during a presidential debate in 2000; “if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us.” Having promised humility as a candidate, Bush then went on to succumb as president to hubris, launching ill-fated and quasi-messianic wars in Iraq and elsewhere in the name of the foreign-policy fad of the time, called Neoconservatism.
Such cognitive dissonance is a reminder that it’s well-nigh impossible to predict how politicians running for the Oval Office will conduct themselves once they’re in it. We may conjecture about the possible foreign policies of ...