When it comes to US foreign policy,

Americans must sometimes feel like gold evlocks

in the Three Bears house.

The porridge that was President George W. Bush's freedom agenda,

promising democracy for everyone from Karachi to Casablanca was too hot.

The mush, constituting President Barack Obama's foreign policy,

deeply ambivalent about the uses of US power, is too cold.

How can the US enforce basic global norms of decency,

deter enemies, and reassure friends

without losing sight of our national interests?

There is a proven model that has nothing to do with foreign policy.

It has to do with policing our toughest inner cities.

In 1990, New York City had a homicide rate

of more than 30 murders for every 100,000 people.

By 2012, it had fallen to a rate of 5 per 100,000.

A similar, if slightly less dramatic story,

unfolded in every other major US city.

Despite the fact that many of the factors

often cited to explain crime, bad schools,

broken homes, poverty, the prevalence of guns,

unemployment remained largely the same.

What happened?

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