Which ideas should guide US Foreign Policy? : Holding fundamentalist policy paradigms to account

Johnson, Matthew and Foster, Russell (2021) Which ideas should guide US Foreign Policy? : Holding fundamentalist policy paradigms to account. International Politics, 58. pp. 111-130. ISSN 1384-5748

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Abstract

In this article, we trace the failure of neoconservative and neoliberal thinkers to revise positions in light of changing US fortunes to highlight the need to evaluate paradigmatic contributions to US Foreign Policy. Drawing on the philosophy of science literature, we suggest that, in order for approaches to be taken seriously, their proponents ought to present means of their own falsification. We argue that the obstinacy of paradigms is not merely of academic importance, since such approaches may contribute to the very crises they claim to resolve. This should give policy makers reasons to reject them as fundamentalist.