The Peace of a ‘Wise and Free People’

While American politicians are busy fawning over the lofty platitudes on peace and cooperation spoken by Chinese politicians, the Chinese government continues stealing top defensive systems plans from the United States. How should American leaders respond to continued spying by Chinese agents? In “The Peace of a ‘Wise and Free People,’” Professors David Corbin and Matthew Parks recommend looking to the Federalist Papers for insight.

In the Federalist Papers No. 3, John Jay discusses how a Union would better serve the security of the American people. This, he reasoned, was true because national leaders would be better positioned to look after the security of all citizens. “Of course,” Corbin and Parks write, “this analysis is probabilistic and no guarantee that we will always have wise and humble leaders.”

These principles have broad implications for the way that American leaders deal with China. The authors continue,

“A sensible approach to US-China relations would begin with four basic premises: that the interests of China and the United States are not the same; that China can be expected to employ any means that will advance its interests; that China will prefer fair means to foul only when the price of the latter is greater than the price of the former; that the United States can only impose a price on Chinese bad behavior if it has both the will and the means. These may be platitudes, but they are grounded in reality, not fantasy.”

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“The Peace of a ‘Wise and Free People’” is the third in an ongoing series of essays examining and applying the timeless principles and truths of the Federalist Papers to the political events of our day. Click here to view all essays in the series.