ABSTRACT
The American military is today spread around the globe. President Clinton says that 100,000 US troops in Europe is the minimum required, despite the disappearance of any credible threat to the West and the ability of the prosperous European community—which includes two nuclear powers, Britain and France—to deter a resurgent Russia in the future. Obviously, some advocates of military intervention oppose much of the current foreign aid program, just as some supporters of foreign aid oppose military intervention. An activist foreign and military policy should therefore require a justification that is important enough to warrant circumscribing, often severely, people's freedom. However, it is not enough to decide that the United States has one or more interests at stake in some foreign matter, because interests are not of unlimited value. The benefits of such objectives have to be balanced against the costs of intervention.
