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Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy. By Amitai Etzioni. Yale University Press 2007. Pp. 308. $27.00. ISBN: 0-300-10857-5.

In Security First, Amitai Etzioni presents a compelling case for change in American foreign policy, and articulates what at first appears to be an elegant new grounding for policy decisions. American foreign policy since September 11, Etzioni tells us, has been driven by the goal of democratizing the globe. This goal is unrealistic. True democracies grow only in societies that have the necessary cultural resources for their cultivation, and much of the world lacks such resources. Under these conditions, the necessarily uneven effort to implement the goal of democratization has given rise to charges of hypocrisy and a crisis of the legitimacy of American power. Correcting the errors of American foreign policy requires more than a "pragmatic adjustment" of means in bringing about democracy, it calls for articulating "an alternative rationale" for the use of American power, (xii) The rationale of democratization suffers from a deficit of realism. But, Etzioni avers, this does not mean that the correction ought to come in the form of amoral, merely self-interested realpolitik. Rather, it ought to come in the form of a more realistic moral principle to orient foreign policy. Etzioni argues that America ought to put "security first," and base American foreign policy on the "primacy of life." (xii) The right to life and security is morally more basic than other human rights one must live in order to live out any other right. This right is also empirically more basic than other rights—when threatened, people just are willing to exchange higher level rights for greater security. Embracing the primacy of life principle does not necessarily entail leaving behind higher level rights. Security is a base on which to build. Established rights that go beyond security should not be abandoned easily, nor should people refrain from encouraging the development of such rights when they do not threaten basic security. Indeed, while eschewing violent efforts to democratize, Etzioni does allow "persuasive measures" (including economic and other forms of ostensibly nonviolent pressure) to encourage democratization. (41) What is important is that these measures are not allowed if they conflict with the primary goal of providing security. With American foreign policy reoriented around the goal of security, America will, Etzioni tells us, be able to act