ABSTRACT
The leaders of nation-states are guided in their decisions about international relations by certain basic values that they and their people hold to be important to their national well-being; these values, or aspirations, are subsumed under the term national interest. Since the founding of nation-states, statesmen and scholars have used the term national interest to describe the aspirations and goals of sovereign entities in the international arena. Identifying the basic national interest, or interests, involved in foreign crises is only the first step in determining foreign policy. The conceptual framework is not a scientific method for predicting state behavior in international crises, even though the methodology does lend itself to quantification. All of the interests of a nation-state may be subsumed under four basic national interests: defense of homeland, economic well-being, favorable world order, and promotion of the nation’s ideology.
