Intresca Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 Just a question, I'm having a problem finding anything on it. But does anyone know Ayn Rand's opinion on unilateralism? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_speicher Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 Just a question, I'm having a problem finding anything on it. But does anyone know Ayn Rand's opinion on unilateralism? If by "unilateralism" you mean that a nation is soverign and need not necessarily consider the views or interests of other nations when determining their own foreign affairs, then I think that would be consistent with Objectivism insofar as we are talking about fundamentally rights-respecting nations acting rationally and morally in their own self-interest. However, it is usually in one's self-interest to consider the views and interests of our allies and friends. So, for instance, if it was in our self-interest to wipe out Iran, we might want to know Britain's view on the matter, but we couldn't care less what Cuba thought about it. We might factor in the interests of an ally like Britain when making the decision to act, but the decision must be based on our self-interest, and the ultimate decision is ours alone to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsalt Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 What Stephen said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intresca Posted August 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 Okay, that's what I was thinking. But the part about "considering the views of your allies" confused me a little because of the self-interest factor in unilateralism (which now of course makes sense to me). Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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