Publication

This commentary discusses former US President John Quincy Adams' foreign policy strategy and the lessons to be drawn by the Obama administration. These include: 1) embracing American power means being as conscious of its limits as of its reach, 2) America should be very careful about involving itself in foreign revolutions, and 3) America should advocate change, but not upheaval. According to the author, Adams’ message speaks past his time, anticipating the democratic upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries and suggests how best to balance America’s impulse to promote change with its instinct to preserve order.