Conclusion

This concluding chapter reflects on the continuing importance of George Kennan's warnings and the counsel he offered. His plea for a mature—that is, a realist—foreign policy has largely fallen on deaf ears. The foreign policy elite is still made up of neoconservatives and liberal internationalists protective of their power and influence. Far from conducting foreign policy on the basis of the national interest and a balance of power, they continue to promote ideological (democratizing) interventions. Of what Kennan described as America's “unfortunate involvement” in the Near East, there is as yet no end. More disturbing, had he lived to witness it, is the all but complete deterioration of relations with Russia.