Has American politics really taken a realist turn?
Daniel Trombly thinks that realism's current vogue is a false spring:
To be blunt, anybody hoping for realism and restraint in American foreign policy is setting themselves up for failure if they put their trust in the inherent wisdom of the mass public to provide a sound guide for foreign policy. It is true that after serious disasters in American foreign policy or prolonged wars, the public does tend to tack a seemingly â??realistâ? course in foreign policy matters. However, a â??realistâ?? inclination that only evinces itself in a politically meaningful way after enough time has passed for thousands of lives have been lost or billions of dollars spent is not a very useful constraint on the interventionist tendencies of the US government.
I'm not sure how much of this supposed realist turn is driven by public opinion or by politicians angling to differentiate themselves.
