All foreign policy is local
(Read article summary)France, Italy, and Saudi Arabia wrestle with their "near abroad" problems.
Russians consider the states of former Soviet Union their "near abroad." Think of the term as being similar to Saul Steinberg's New Yorker cover showing a parochial view of the world from Manhattan. What happens closest to home is more important than what happens far away.
Every nation has a near abroad. For the United States, it's Latin America and the Caribbean. For China, it's East and Southeast Asia. India looks at the Indian Ocean basin. You can see three more cases of near-abroad thinking in the news today:
• France's interventions in Africa, specifically Libya and Ivory Coast, where a combination of urgent issues -- from energy security to migration control to human rights -- have upped its direct involvement.
