In Jefferson's day, war was like the sport of nations. Every country was a potential enemy and war was the inevitable and the expected. The entangling alliances that he refers to were these elaborate and sometimes secret agreements that countries would make to enhance their prospects in the next war, and protect themselves from gangs of aggressors. The entangling alliances were the gangs of history. The prime example of the potential danger of these alliances is the first World War, in which one assassination in Sarajevo sent the entire world to war against itself.

But there has been a major change in the world since the founding of our country, and that is the proliferation of democracies. I think that the single most important fact in considering diplomacy today is that democracies never go to war with each other. People are willing to die for freedom, but not for water rights or trade issues or extra territory.

Every non-democracy out there is a potential threat. Dictators and tyrants often find war to be a useful tool to consolidate their power, stir up patriotism, and send their internal enemies to the front.

The goal of foreign policy should be to promote democracy. We should not give any sort of aid to any nondemocracy and help fellow democracies if they are attacked. Appeasement towards aggressors is never a prudent policy. The best way to protect American citizens from foreign aggressors and terrorists in the long term is to protect fellow democracies so that eventually the whole world can be democratic and war will be eliminated.

Specific policies that I advocate:

• Stop playing as a neutral middleman between Israel and the Arabs. Israel is a relatively free democracy and the Arabs are brutal theocratic dictatorships. We should support Israel 100% and join them in war the next time the Arabs attack; and instead of fighting for the status quo, we should fight for an unconditional victory and impose democracy as we did in Germany and Japan. The Islamic countries are going to be a problem as long as they exist in their present form. We need to adopt zero-tolerance.
• Don't abandon Afghanistan. Maintain a presence there and continue to support the government there until it has established itself as a stable democracy.
• Stay out of the India and Pakistan conflict. I don't think that they will actually go to war, and our interference might be objectionable.
• Abandon the WTO. See This Isn't Free Trade from the von Mises Institute.
• Unilateral free trade.