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Wall Street Journal

There's a Doctrine in the House—Call It Mater-Realism

Along with the big house and a legacy, every self-respecting president likes to have a doctrine. Since James Monroe gave his name to one, most presidents have sought to codify formally or informally their engagement with the world beyond U.S. shores into a set of principles that provides a blueprint for a coherent foreign policy. (Teddy Roosevelt had to make do with a corollary rather than a full doctrine, but that didn't stop him from being among the more consequential presidents.) Presidential doctrine is both rhetorical and empirical, carefully crafted in speeches that capture the administration's intentions and aspirations, and executed in presidential action. In his 1985 State of the Union address, Ronald Reagan pithily captured his doctrine with the claim that 'Support for freedom fighters is self-defense.' He exemplified it with active assistance to anticommunists from Kabul to Managua.