| Summary: | The article focuses on the foreign policy goals of progressive policymakers in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. To advance from a nuanced dissent to a compelling vision, progressives should turn to the great mainstay of twentieth-century foreign policy, which is liberal internationalism. They must advance a policy that renders more effective the fight against terrorism and also focuses on the smart use of power to promote interests through a stable grid of allies and norms. Much of the world still buys into the ideals of liberal internationalism. As fascism and communism once did, terrorism and nuclear proliferation make the liberal internationalist agenda as urgent as ever. Liberal societies are not only less prone to war but also less likely to breed or harbor terrorists. progressives, therefore, must reframe policy according to their abiding belief that an ambitious agenda to advance freedom, trade and human rights is the best long-term guarantee of the country's security against terrorism and other threats. Selective efforts to seed democracy and free markets in important terrories will always be dogged by perceptions of hypocrisy and narrow self-interest unless accompanied by a broader policy that is viewed as liberal.
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