ABSTRACT
Vital interests entail the possibility that conventional warfare or economic sanctions may result from a crisis in which neither side is prepared to compromise further to achieve a solution. Distance from one’s own borders remains an important factor in judging the importance of an international issue, primarily because people think in geographical terms when viewing a foreign threat to the national interest. Proximity of danger applies only to defense and world order interests, not to economic or ideological interests, because the latter have little to do with geographical limits. The economic stake clearly affects two of the basic US national interests—economic and world order. All states are interested in the image they project to other states in the international system, but national prestige is more important to major and superpowers than to small states. The policies of allies can be expanded as a consideration in determining national interest by including world opinion, or more particularly the United Nations.
