Well, howdy there internet people, let's be able again. So today we're going to talk

about national interests and what they are and how they impact the people in the

countries that are engaged in foreign policy in pursuit of their

national interests. We're going to do this because somebody sent me a message.

It was like, what are national interests and how do they impact to the people living in those countries.

So basically how it was phrased.

And when I first saw the question, I was kind of taken aback because I was like what do you mean what are national

interests and then I thought about it from the perspective of somebody who

doesn't intensely follow foreign policy and yeah that makes total sense. That's actually a really

valuable question. And when you try to define what national interests are it

gets shaky.

You know, when we talk about foreign policy,

I always say the same thing.

Foreign policy is the pursuit of power, plain and simple. That's what foreign policy is. But when you try to define

national interest, it starts to get kind of murky because every country has its own culture, ideology, economic system, system of government,

and then they have the framing that they use to tie all these little pieces together. So it

seems like there would be different national interests for different countries.

There's really not.

The main goal is power of one kind or another.

It's power if you want to get more in depth. It is safety and wealth being used to achieve power.

It's all about power. This is why there are a lot of people who look at moves that get

made on the foreign policy scene and they don't seem to make any sense because they view it as transactional.

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