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Nonintervention or non-interventionism is a foreign policy which holds that political rulers should avoid alliances with other nations and avoid all wars not related to direct territorial self-defense. A similar phrase is "strategic independence".^[1]

Nonintervention is one step removed from isolationism, the latter featuring economic nationalism (protectionism) and restrictive immigration. Proponents of non-interventionism distinguish their polices from isolationism through their advocacy of more open national relations, to include diplomacy and free trade. Examples of supporters of non-interventionism are Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both favored nonintervention in European Wars while maintaining free trade. Other proponents include United States Senator Robert Taft and United States Congressman Ron Paul.^[2]

Contents 1 Nonintervention by country 1.1 New Zealand 1.2 Sweden 1.3 Switzerland 1.4 United States 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading

[edit] Nonintervention by country

[edit] New Zealand

In recent years New Zealand has become largely noninterventionist. No military support, apart from medical, was given for the first Gulf war although SAS troops were provided for the war in Afghanistan. Engineers were provided in Iraq after conventional hostilities in the war had ceased. In the Pacific Islands, New Zealand has been involved in humanitarian interventions in the Solomon Islands, East Timor, and West Papua. However, those interventions were non-coercive interventions at the request of the nation being intervened upon.

[edit] Sweden

[edit] Switzerland

Switzerland has long been known for its policy of defensively armed neutrality.

[edit] United States

The Federalist Party was non-interventionist.

In the United States, this foreign policy has been advocated at various times in the country's history, notably during the first century of U.S. history. George Washington, the first U.S. President, advised the country to avoid "foreign entanglements." Thomas Jefferson favored "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." John Quincy Adams wrote that the U.S. "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."

The policy of non-intervention has been a serious issue for every major U.S. war. During World War I, the inter-war years, World War II, and the Korean War, the main proponents of non-interventionism were the Old Right. During the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, the New Left became the chief proponents of non-interventionism. Today in the U.S., members of both the "left" and "right" favor military interventionism in certain circumstances. Paleoconservatives, libertarians, and some modern leftists are non-interventionists.

[edit] See also

• Isolationism
• Non-intervention
• Interventionism
• Positive non-interventionism

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• America's Tradition Of Non-Interventionism, Chris Leithner
• Non-Interventionism, OnPower.org
• Congressman Ron Paul is a Non-interventionist: http://www.ronpaulnewengland.com/index.php/ron-paul-is-a-non-interventionist-not-an-isolationist
• "A Noninterventionist Revival", by Michael R. Allen, Editor, Spin Magazine December 24, 1998: http://www.antiwar.com/nonint.html